A British soldier was killed during clashes with insurgents in the southern Iraqi city of Basra today, the Ministry of Defence said.
"With regret we can confirm that one British soldier has been killed," a ministry spokesman said in London.
The soldier died when a number of British army vehicles came under fire from Iraqi insurgents in the Basra area, he said.
A British military spokesman on the ground said earlier that five British soldiers were wounded in fierce clashes with Shi'ite militiamen on the streets of Basra.
Two British military Land Rovers were set on fire after militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fired rocket-propelled grenades at their patrol.
It was not immediately clear if one of those five had subsequently died or whether the fatality was a separate incident.