British forces returned Saturday to an Iraqi town where six British troops were killed, as US forces facing now daily attacks blamed on Saddam Hussein loyalists reported another soldier killed.

A US army soldier observes the street during a weapons search on the outskirts of Baghdad June 28, 2003. US forces in Iraq found the bodies of two missing soldiers on Saturday north of the Iraqi capital just hours after guerrilla-style attackers killed one serviceman and wounded four others in a Baghdad neighborhood. [Reuters]

US forces also found the bodies of two soldiers who went missing Wednesday in central Iraq, home to the country's minority Sunni Muslims and Saddam's former stronghold.

The British force of 500 troops sent to Majjar met a delegation of Shi'ite Muslim clerics and local dignitaries in the town where six British military police were killed on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in London said.

"The troops... have been welcomed by the local people," a ministry spokesman said.

"They told the people they were there to help them re-establish their community, not to punish them. The message was: 'We're not going to be frightened off, but neither are we going to punish the people in the way Saddam Hussein would have done'."

Before the troops re-entered Majjar, a British plane dropped more than 50,000 leaflets over the area, urging a return to calm. The British military says all 14 British troops killed or hurt in last Tuesday's clashes were victims of a misunderstanding between troops and residents over arms searches.

The Shi'ites, in the majority in Iraq but oppressed by Saddam for a quarter of a century, had been perceived as less hostile, even friendly, to British forces. In 1991, Majjar residents fought fierce battles against Iraqi troops when Saddam crushed an uprising.

In the latest violence against US forces, one American soldier was killed and four wounded in a grenade attack on a US regiment in a mainly Shi'ite Baghdad district that until recently was called Saddam City, a US military spokeswoman said. The attack occurred late Friday.

Although Washington blames the attacks on die-hard Saddam loyalists, many Iraqis said after the Iraqi leader was toppled on April 9 that US and British forces would face discontent if they did not restore government to Iraqi hands quickly.

The US and British troop deaths underline how dangerous it remains for forces from the two countries to impose order in a country awash with weapons. Iraqis largely ignored a mid-June deadline to surrender arms.

"WAR NOT OVER"

US Central Command gave no details on the circumstances of the deaths of its two soldiers who went missing Wednesday, but a senior US military official said: "The first clear message that we have to take out of here is that this war is not over."

The bodies of the two soldiers were found in the village of Banat al-Hassan, about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.

"At six in the morning we found the Americans buried over there," taxi driver Naji Shihab told Reuters Television, pointing to a pile of straw on the side of the road.

"After that a group of Americans backed with aircraft deployed in the area and at about four o'clock they took the bodies and left. (The bodies) were bloated."

Before Saturday's discovery, 22 US soldiers had been killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1.

Washington and London have vowed to carry on with their Iraq mission despite the recent troop deaths.

A US military official said troops had detained more than 900 "former regime loyalists, former Fedayeen (militia) and other criminals" in the past week and were conducting more than 2,000 patrols across Iraq every day.

Iraqis celebrated the fall of Saddam more than two months ago, but calls for their own government have grown louder and they have grown impatient with the US-led occupation, which is enforced by 156,000 troops, some 53,000 of them in Baghdad.

Citizens remain frustrated by daily power outages and a shortage of drinking water to help them cool off in temperatures soaring above 100 Fahrenheit, as well as high rates of crime and unemployment.

In Baghdad, fire ripped through a warehouse storing paper used for printing Iraqi dinars Saturday and firefighters and US troops battled a fire at a sulfur plant in northern Iraq for a third day.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fires or if they were linked to recent waves of sabotage and looting.

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