IRAQ - May 29 - British Soldiers And CBS Journalists Killed.

The British military announces that two soldiers had died in a roadside bomb attack in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, bringing the total number of UK military fatalities in May to nine, the highest it has suffered in southern Iraq since March 2003. Separately, two CBS news employees were killed on May 29 in a bomb attack on a US military patrol they were travelling with in Baghdad, the US TV network said. Cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, both London-based, were killed and correspondent Kimberly Dozier, an American, was in a critical condition. Reuters reported that an unnamed US soldier and an Iraqi civilian working with the military were killed along with the journalists. At least 33 other people were killed in attacks across the country. The deaths of the soldiers come amid a political crisis in the southern port city which sees rival Shi'ite Islamist factions vying for authority. The soldiers died after their armoured Land Rover was attacked on a routine patrol late on May 28. Two days earlier, the British military said it had found a huge cache of explosives, including sophisticated ''shaped-charge'' bombs, and arrested 10 suspects. Two other British soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack just north of the city earlier in the month, and five were killed in a helicopter crash whose cause is yet to be established. British military fatalities in Iraq have fluctuated between zero and six each month since April 2003, with the exception of January 2005 when 10 people were killed when a C-130 cargo aircraft went down in central Iraq. A total of 113 UK troops have died since the March 2003 invasion. Although less violent than the centre of the country, Basra is still chaotic, thanks to a lucrative trade in smuggled gasoline and defiance of Baghdad's authority. "The reality is down here that there are a number of renegade militia groups that are not obeying the orders of their leaders. "Clearly there is more than one cell and we unfortunately saw the results of this last night", said British military spokesman Lt Col Richard Eaton. Militia activity is believed to be on the increase this year in Basra, thanks in part to the five month-long hiatus in Baghdad during negotiations over the formation of the government. Clashes have also been reported both among the region's powerful tribes, and between the tribes and the police. Police said last week that 75 civilians were killed in April and another 40 in May. Meanwhile, the provincial political balance is in flux with the Fadila party fighting to maintain its position. The Islamist movement until now has dominated local government thanks in part to its support for southern autonomy as well as its control of the oil ministry. Last week, oil officials anonymously accused Fadila members within the oil sector of interfering with production after the ministry was taken away from a party member and given to Hussein al-Shahristani. On May 27, the office of Iraq's Pres Jalal Talabani called on Nuri al-Maliki, the new prime minister, to send a delegation to Basra, empowered to "dismiss and appoint" officials and to take other necessary measures to resolve the crisis.