Britons die in Baghdad bombing

Three Britons were killed in a suicide bomb blast at a US-manned checkpoint in Baghdad on a day of bloodshed in Iraq.

At least 17 people died in three car bombs and a roadside attack yesterday. The Britons and an American died when a suicide bomber crashed his car into a convoy that had just left the Green Zone, the area which houses the US embassy and Iraqi government offices.

Today the bloodshed continued with another suicide car bomb at a police post near the Green Zone, killing at least six people.

Two of the British victims yesterday were working for US-based international security consultant Kroll Inc. A spokeswoman at the risk assessment company's headquarters in New York said: "Two of the people worked for us and two were with clients of Kroll.

"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the people who were killed. The two people ( working for Kroll) were British and working as security professionals."

She said almost all the company's security staff came from military backgrounds. The Foreign Office confirmed three Britons had been killed but gave no further details. Ex-servicemen make up the majority of security guards in Iraq.

Among the other targets yesterday-was the offices of Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi, where a checkpoint was hit by a car packed with explosives. Four people died. A roadside bomb in Tikrit killed at least six Iraqi National Guardsmen. In Balad, north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed four Iraqi soldiers.