WARSAW, Aug 19 (AFP) - Two Polish soldiers serving in Iraq were killed and five injured on Thursday in a car crash as they sought to escape an ambush, a military spokesman in Warsaw said.
"A patrol comprising three vehicles came at 0300 GMT under automatic fire from unknown individuals," Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski told AFP.
"The vehicles then speeded up and two of them crashed. Two soldiers were killed instantaneously."
The attacks took place at al-Hilla, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, about five kilometres from a base where the general staff of the division led by Poland is based.
"Five others were injured and taken to hospital in Baghdad. None of the soldiers was shot," Gnatowski said.
The deaths brought to nine the number of soldiers lost by Poland, which heads a multinational force of 6,500 administering a swathe of Iraq south of Baghdad.
Four Polish civilians have also been killed in Iraq, including a prominent television presenter and his Algerian-born picture editor who were gunned down in May.
The number of attacks on Polish forces has increased over recent days, with seven people being slightly wounded on Wednesday during a mortar attack on the force's base.
Poland hopes to reduce the number of troops it has in the country from 2,500 to 1,500 soldiers in early 2005.
Poland is also preparing to move its base from Babylon to somewhere more secure, as announced last week by the army's chief of staff, General Czeslaw Piatas.
Earlier this month, Polish forces handed over control to US troops of two of the five provinces they administered in Iraq, including the province of Najaf, which has been the scene of heavy fighting.
According to a recent poll, 73 percent of Poles oppose the participation of their country's troops in the US-led international force, against 67 percent in June.