Briton killed in northern Iraq

The security situation in Iraq remains unstable

A British contractor has been killed after an attack by gunmen on a civilian convoy in northern Iraq.

The Foreign Office said the man killed in the ambush near Mosul on Saturday was security guard Craig Dickins. Three other Britons were injured.

In the past two months there has been an increase of attacks against foreign civilians in Iraq.

Four British contractors were killed in May, with 11 deaths since the end of the war last year.

In a separate attack just outside Baghdad, two Poles and two American private contractors were killed in a roadside ambush.

And at least six Iraqis have been killed in a suspected car bomb attack north of Baghdad.

Several Iraqis killed in attacks

Two American soldiers were among several people injured in the blast at Taji, a US military officer said.

Several Iraqi policemen were also reported to have been killed in an attack on a police station south of Baghdad late on Saturday.

The wave of violence comes with the 30 June handover date looming, when power will transfer from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to an interim Iraqi government.