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BAGHDAD (Iraq): A car bomb has exploded outside a US military base near Baghdad. At least six Iraqi paramilitary soldiers have been injured, according to reports.

The suicide bomb attack was on Camp Anaconda, about 30 miles north of the capital.

"Two members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps are in a serious condition," said Major Neal O'Brien.

"The wounded Iraqi soldiers were evacuated to a local hospital. The attacker was killed in the explosion."

Recap

Camp Anaconda, a major centre for US operations in central Iraq, has regularly been attacked by insurgents fighting the US-led occupation.

More Iraqi police and paramilitaries have been killed in the past year in Iraq than US soldiers.

They are often targeted because they are seen as cooperating with the US while the insurgents feel a war of attrition will stop Iraq setting up a stable government.

15 British Soldiers Injured in Basra

A report from Basra says that at least fifteen British soldiers were injured in clashes with demonstrators in southern Iraq.

Thirteen were injured by explosives during the protests in Basra - three of them were seriously injured.

An Army spokesman there were two grenade explosions which injured the men.

"The demonstration was thought to have been about employment," he said.

Frustration

"There is frustration. Quite frankly we expected this sort of situation because expectations are so high."

He added: "The situation is now stable and under control."

Some demonstrators were reported to have shouted slogans in support of Saddam Hussein and protested at Israel's killing of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City.

Sons of Yassin

According to witnesses they chanted: "We are all sons of Yassin".

The injured troops have been taken to the Shaibah military hospital on the outskirts of the city.

Basra, Iraq's second city, is the headquarters for the 8,800 British troops who have occupied southern Iraq since the US-led invasion on March 20 last year.

The British commander in Basra, Brigadier Nick Carter, said last week that over the past four months, the number of attacks on troops there had fallen by around 50% compared to when they first entered the city.