Iraq violence: Spreading south? (Into British Area)

[RamboLiberal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4226360.stm

It has been a bad week in the normally quiet and mainly Shia south of Iraq, where British troops have been trying to maintain order since the end of the 2003 war.

Now, the coalition and Iraqi authorities are wondering whether they are seeing the start of a fresh wave of violence in the run up to next month's referendum on the new Iraqi constitution.

Four security guards were killed in an earlier attack
A bomb outside a restaurant in Basra was the third attack in as many days.

Sixteen people were killed and 21 injured when a pick-up truck full of explosives was detonated near a restaurant popular with the Iraqi security forces. Among the dead were two children.

A short distance away, another car bomb was discovered by police officers who carried out a controlled explosion.