Baghdad - Attacks by militants claimed six lives across Iraq Thursday, including those of two US troops and one British soldier, police and military sources reported Friday.

The British soldier was killed late Thursday in the southern province of Basra, the British Ministry of Defence reported.

The two US soldiers are the first US deaths in December, bringing the total death toll of US troops since the beginning of the invasion to 4,209. The soldiers were killed when a car bomb detonated near a US army patrol late Thursday, the US forces reported on their website.

The blast also injured eight civilians, a police source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

Separately, unknown gunmen assassinated a high-ranking Iraqi security official in central Mosul on Thursday.

Also Thursday, unidentified militants killed a police man in Mosul's al-Mathni district. A civilian was also shot in northern Mosul by militants. (dpa)