Insurgent attacks killed at least 13 people across Iraq, police said Tuesday, as British troops stormed into a southern city to arrest a suspected "terrorist". Eight of the murder victims were young Shia men from Najaf, who were pulled from buses by gunmen late on Monday as they travelled north to Madaen on the outskirts of Baghdad, and shot dead in the street, police said.Two civilians were killed in a blast on Tuesday in central Baghdad while three civilians were murdered in Baquba. Fifteen more civilians were wounded in a mortar strike within the town, police said. British troops backed by Challenger tanks raided a site in the southern Iraqi town of Amara and seized six suspects, a spokesman said. Police in Amara said two civilians were killed in crossfire between British forces and Mehdi Army militiamen.
A senior British commander said the British forces could hand over responsibility for security in Basra province to the Baghdad government within as little as nine months. US and Iraqi forces captured more than 100 known and suspected terrorists, including one linked to the February 22 bombing of a Shia shrine.