British forces in southern Iraq have freed two British soldiers who were arrested by Iraqi police in the city of Basra.
Iraqi officials have reacted angrily after British troops stormed a police station with a tank in search of the soldiers.
'It is a very unfortunate development that the British forces should try to release their forces the way it happened,' Haider al-Ebadi, an adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, told a news conference in Baghdad.
The soldiers were apparently working undercover. Police said the two men were found with explosives at the time of their arrest.
British Defence Secretary John Reid said the two soldiers were freed when negotiations appeared blocked.
'In the course of the day we became increasingly worried that those people in there to negotiate with the police seemed to be having no success in getting our men out,' he said.
