A rocket attack struck a British military base in southern Iraq, wounding six soldiers, The Associated Press quotes a military spokeswoman as saying today. The Thursday night attack on the Basra Palace camp in the southern port city of Basra left one soldier seriously wounded, Capt. Katie Brown said. Five others were lightly wounded and treated on the spot, she said. On Wednesday, a roadside bomb lightly wounded two British soldiers in Basra. Two British soldiers have been killed so far in Iraq this month, one of them in a non-hostile incident. The attack occurred a day before U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived unannounced in Basra to consult with British and other allied commanders. Britain, which has the largest troop contingent among the U.S. allies, with about 7,000 soldiers in the Basra area, is planning to withdraw a large portion of them this year.
