April bloodiest month for UK troops in Iraq since 2003

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - British troops in Iraq passed a bloody milestone this week with the killing of soldier Alan Joseph Jones, 20, a gunner on a Warrior fighting vehicle, who was shot dead by gunmen in the southern city of Basra.

A total of 11 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq so far this month, the highest number of casualties suffered by British forces in a single month since March 2003, when 27 were killed in the opening days of the U.S.-led invasion.

Analysts say that with British troops poised to begin reducing their numbers in Basra in the coming months, Shi'ite militias are increasing their attacks so that they can claim victory when British forces eventually pull out.

The deaths come in a month in which British forces have handed over a third province to Iraqi security control and pulled out from the third of five military bases in and around the port city of Basra, the hub of Iraq's southern oil fields.

They are also preparing to reduce their 7,000-strong force in Basra to about 5,500 by the beginning of June.

While some senior British officers say they are facing a stepped-up campaign by militias, British military spokesman Major David Gell said on Wednesday the latest figures showed there had actually been a drop-off in the number of attacks.

"I put down the saddening number of deaths to tragic coincidence. There is no logic to it," he said from Basra.

Basra has not experienced the sectarian violence seen in Baghdad, but Shi'ite militias, particularly radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, are a powerful force in the city and have frequently attacked foreign troops.

British bases have been struck almost daily by mortar fire and patrols hit by roadside bombs and machinegun fire. Jones was shot in Basra on Monday. In the worst single attack this month, four soldiers were killed when their Warrior was blown up.

British military analyst, Tim Ripley, said Basra had become more dangerous for British troops following the announcement by Prime Minister Tony Blair in February that the size of the force was to be reduced by a quarter.

POWER STRUGGLE

"Now is their chance to prove that you were in the forefront of the struggle and you drove out the imperialists," said Ripley, who writes about Iraq for Janes publications.

"It is all part of positioning yourself for the inevitable power struggle when the power vacuum is created."

Sadr's followers are vying for control of Basra's vast oil wealth, the source of most of Iraq's revenues, with the locally powerful Fadhila party.

The commander of British forces, Major-General Jonathan Shaw, told Reuters in an interview last week his soldiers would be leaving Basra "on our own timetable", but acknowledged there "may be people trying to accelerate us".

British military officials have dismissed suggestions that the violence might lead to a delay in the handover of Basra, a view echoed by Blair's spokesman on Wednesday.

"I'm not aware of any changes to our plans ... What we need to focus on are the efforts both in Basra and Baghdad to transfer responsibility to the Iraqi authorities as quickly as possible but do so when the conditions on the ground allow," he said.

(Additional reporting by Peter Graff, Katherine Baldwin and Kate Kelland in London)