WARSAW, Sept 12 (AFP) - Three Polish soldiers were killed and three others wounded on Sunday in an attack near the central Iraqi city of Hilla, a spokesman for the Polish military said.
"Three Polish soldiers were killed and three others wounded when their patrol was attacked with rockets and machine guns, north of Hilla," Colonel Zbigniew Gnatowski told AFP.
"The three wounded have been evacuated towards a hospital in Karbala. Their lives are not in danger," he added.
Polish news agency PAP said the soldiers were returning to base after defusing a roadside bomb when they were attacked.
Hilla is located 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad.
Seventeen Polish nationals -- 13 soldiers and four civilians -- have now been killed since the Polish military dispatched 2,500 troops to Iraq last year in the wake of the US-led war. Poland heads up a multinational force of 6,000 soldiers.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski said Poland's mission would continue despite the latest deaths.
"We cannot pull out unilaterally. The mission must continue or we'll undermine our credibility with our partners," Kwasniewski said on TVN private television.
Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said on TVP public television that he would use the visit Monday of Iraq's interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar to urge speeding up work on the creation of Iraq's army.
Polish officials have said they would like to reduce their troop levels in Iraq next year.