Baghdad - An earthquake that measured 5.13 on the Richter scale hit Iraq's southern provinces of Basra and Maysan during the early hours of Thursday, causing no damage or casualties, according to news reports.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in the northeast of Amarah city in Maysan province. It occurred at 01.15 am (0415 GMT), the Voices of Iraq news agency reported, quoting an official from the earthquake monitoring department in Basra.

The tremor was followed by a number of aftershocks, the official said.

Washington  - Three US soldiers executed four Iraqi prisoners in March or April of 2007, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing sworn statements by two of the soldiers.

The four militants with apparent ties to the Shiite al-Mahdi Army were shot in the head while blindfolded and handcuffed. Their bodies were then left in a canal west of Baghdad, the newspaper reported after obtaining the statements.

Sergeant First Class Joseph Mayo and Sergeant Michael Leahy Jr confessed to and described the killings in a statement to US Army investigators in January.

Mayo and Leahy admitted to each killing at least one of the prisoners on orders from First Sergeant John Hatley, who they said killed two of the prisoners.

Baghdad- Two suicide bombers were among three terrorists killed Wednesday in a clash with US forces northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US military said.

One of the bombers was shot dead and the other detonated his explosives as the troops approached, killing himself but causing no other casualties, the military said.

The incident took place in Dijala province, a stronghold of the terrorist network al-Qaeda in Iraq.

London, Aug 27: Afghanistan is now more dangerous for British troops than Iraq has ever been, a new report has revealed.

It shows eight out of every 1,000 UK servicemen are being killed in NATO’s mission to tame the Taliban in the Afghan badlands. That is more than the coalition death rate of 7.5 per 1,000 personnel during the worst of the fighting in Iraq.

In newly pacified Baghdad and Basra, the rate is now down to less than three per 1,000, The Sun reported.

Baghdad  - Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday said his government and the United States have agreed to the end of 2011 as the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

"After 2011 no foreign soldiers will no longer be in Iraq," al-Maliki told a gathering of leaders of Iraq's Bani Lam tribe.

Iraq has insisted on a timeframe for the withdrawal of US troops in ongoing negotiations for a security agreement between the two countries.

The Status of Forces Agreement would establish a legal basis for the presence of US soldiers in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires end of this year.