LONDON, England (CNN) -- Two British soldiers have been killed in an ambush on a British military convoy in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, Britain's defense ministry says.
Two British armored Land Rovers and a logistics vehicle were traveling in a convoy in the southwest of the city when they were attacked, a defense spokesman told CNN.
The first vehicle, a Land Rover, was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, he said. As soldiers from the second vehicle were trying to rescue those hit, they came under attack from small arms fire, and a small-arms fight broke out.
It's unclear whether the soldiers who died were killed during the gunfight or were in the Land Rover hit by the rocket-propelled grenade. Both soldiers died from their wounds in the Basra military hospital.
Their names and units were withheld pending notification of their families.
Hospital officials in Basra told Reuters that at least two Iraqi bystanders were also injured in the attack.
The deaths bring the number of British soldiers killed in combat in Iraq to 25.
They came on the day that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was giving a keynote speech to the annual conference of his ruling Labour Party.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/28/iraq.basratroops/index.html