Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed Wednesday in an attack in Iraq as opposition parties continued to urge the former Soviet republic to consider pulling back its troops from Iraq.

The Defense Ministry said one soldier died at the scene and the other in hospital after their armored convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade and machine-gun fire during a routine patrol about 60 km west of the city of Kut.

A third soldier wounded in the attack was not in life-threatening danger after operation, said the ministry.

Six Ukrainian soldiers have died and 16 wounded since Ukraine sent 1,650 troops to Iraq last August, a move designed to improve ties with the United States which accused it of selling illegal arms to the former Saddam Hussein regime.

The Communist Party demanded a special parliament session be held to consider withdrawing troops from Iraq, saying those in support of sending troops must be responsible for the deaths.

But President Leonid Kuchma had pledged that the soldiers, who carry out a peacekeeping mission in Iraq, would have to stay. He accused the opposition parties of making troop withdrawal demand for political reasons.

Ukrainian troops pulled out of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, this month after one soldier was killed in an explosion and five wounded in crossfire with followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Source: Xinhua