FACTBOX: Security developments in Iraq

(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 4:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

* denotes new or updated item.

BASRA - Fighting between Iraqi security forces and the Mehdi Army militia continued in Basra. A health official said 40 people had been killed and 200 wounded since a major Iraqi military operation began on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD - Twelve people have been killed and 77 wounded in clashes between Iraqi security forces and the Mehdi Army in Baghdad's Sadr City district since Tuesday, said Ali Bustan, general director of the health office for eastern Baghdad.

* HILLA - U.S. helicopters struck the town of Hilla in support of Iraqi police battling militia members. Four Iraqi security sources spoke of large numbers of casualties in the air strike. U.S. forces confirmed the strike but said they did not believe large numbers of people had died.

BAGHDAD - Mortar attacks killed five and wounded 20 in Baghdad's Karrada district, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two people were killed in Shaab district and one person in Kadhimiya district from fighting between Iraqi security forces and the Mehdi Army.

BAGHDAD - Mortar attacks killed four people and wounded 12 in Baghdad's southwestern district of Risala.

BAGHDAD - Three U.S. citizens working for the U.S. government in Baghdad were seriously wounded in a mortar attack in the Green Zone, the diplomatic and government compound, a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said.

KUT - Eighteen people were killed, including a baby girl, and dozens wounded in fighting between Mehdi Army members and Iraqi security forces in Kut, 175 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. Police said the militia had taken control of seven neighborhoods.

* BAGHDAD - U.S. forces reported two soldiers killed by gunshot wounds in the capital.

* BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol on a road through Sadr City late on Wednesday and American troops cordoned off the area, a U.S. military spokesman said. He did not give information on casualties.

IRAQ - The British Ministry of Defence said a British soldier died of gunshot wounds sustained in battle. It did not say where the fighting had taken place.

TIKRIT - A U.S. air strike killed five Iraqi civilians, including a judge, and wounded 10 in the northern town of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.

The U.S. military said troops were involved in a gunbattle with militants, who used the civilians as human shields. The military said it was targeting an al Qaeda supporter that was suspected of organizing car bomb attacks.

DIWANIYA - One Iraqi soldier was killed in eastern Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, in clashes between Iraqi security forces and Mehdi Army militants, according to an army source.