BAGHDAD, August 19, 2008 (AFP) - A rocket attack killed a US soldier in formerly British-patrolled Maysan province in southeastern Iraq on Tuesday, the military said.

'A Multi-National Division - Centre soldier was killed as a result of a rocket attack on a forward operating base near Amara,' a statement said.

The death brought US losses since the 2003 invasion to 4,143, according to an AFP toll based on independent website icasualties.org.

British forces handed security control of Maysan over to Iraqi forces in April 2007, the fourth Iraqi province to be transferred by the US-led coalition.

They pulled out of the provincial capital Amara in August 2006 only to see their former base in the city of 350,000 people stripped bare by looters.

The province has since seen repeated clashes between rival Shiite militias and in June Iraqi security forces launched a major crackdown in the province.

In other violence on Tuesday, three Iraqi policemen were killed as they investigated a booby-trapped car in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, Police Colonel Mohammed al-Asafi told AFP.

In the capital, one policeman was killed and three wounded in a drive-by shooting on a checkpoint in an eastern neighbourhood.