Soldiers killed in chopper crash A NUMBER of British soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in the southern city of Basra overnight and several more were injured in ensuing clashes on the ground, the Ministry of Defence said. The situation was still "volatile" after British troops who deployed to the site were attacked with petrol bombs, blast bombs, stones and gunfire, it said. An Iraqi police officer said four Iraqi civilians, including two children, were killed and another 19 wounded in the fighting. Des Browne, Britain's newly-appointed defence minister, was unable to give an exact casualty toll from the downed chopper, but said: "At this early stage I can confirm the tragic deaths of a number of British service personnel." An AFP correspondent at the crash site saw two bodies of the chopper crew completely burned. Browne said the cause of the crash was unclear, but a policeman in Basra said the helicopter was downed by a rocket. The British minister said: "Together with the Iraqi emergency services, British forces are securing the crash site, which will help to ensure a thorough investigation of all possible causes of the incident." Mr Browne, who only took over the defence job on Friday after a cabinet reshuffle, urged people to resist speculating on what happened "until the situation in Basra is calmer and we are able to establish the facts." Violence flared after the helicopter came down, with a mob attacking British soldiers who were setting up a cordon to secure the area. "British troops have come under attack with a variety of weapons including guns and petrol bombs as well as blast bombs and stones," the defence ministry said in a statement. "A number of UK personnel received minor injuries in the attacks. We cannot confirm reports of Iraqi injuries or fatalities from cross-fire." Britain has some 8,000 soldiers deployed in and around Basra. Not including the death toll from Saturday, it has lost 104 soldiers, 79 of them in combat operations, since joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
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A British military helicopter crashed in Basra on Saturday killing four crew members. Local Iraqis filled the surrounding streets celebrating the crash before a clash occurred with British troops upon their arrival.

"We can confirm it was a British military helicopter that has crashed and an investigation is ongoing," a British military spokesman in London said.

An AFP reporter on the scene heard from a local policeman that the helicopter was hit by a rocket fired by local militia.

According to Basra police spokesman Lieut. Colonel Kareem al-Zaidi, "a multinational forces helicopter was hit by a rocket and went down on houses in central Basra". He also added that fire-fighters later found the four British crew members charred in the wreckage and that no causalities on the ground resulted from the impact.

Earlier, an AFP journalist sighted the downed British military helicopter and reported he saw two burnt crew members after the impact which caused the helicopter to burst into flames.

After the crash, it is reported that hundreds of people from the local area, many of them youths, celebrated the helicopter's downing in the streets surrounding the crash.

On the arrival of British troops at the scene, including two tanks and one land rover,  the crowd allegedly attacked the British forces with rocks, debris and petrol bombs.

A British spokeswoman, Capt. Kelly Goodall, said British soldiers who responded came "under attack by a variety of weapons, including small arms fire, petrol bombs, as well as blast bombs and stone."

British soldiers used foam to extinguish their vehicles, escaping uninjured.

Members of the crowd allegedly shouted slogans such as "victory for the Mehdi Army!" and "we are all soldiers of al-Sayed" in support of local militants lead by Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

During the conflict, An AFP photographer was shot and wounded in the leg by a rubber-coated bullet. Contrary to reports from the British defence department, the journalist said that British soldiers raised their rifles and shot one man dead and also later shot the driver of a car in a local street dead.

As conflict was escalated, British and Shi'ite gunmen exchanged fire which resulted in the addition deaths of four Iraqis including two children. An estimated 30 civilians were reportedly injured in the melee.

An Iraqi policeman in Basra said the helicopter was downed by a rocket and said four Iraqi civilians, including two children, were killed and another 19 wounded in the fighting.

Military forces later cordoned off the scene and imposed a curfew on the surrounding area in Basra.