BASRA, Iraq - British forces were "absolutely right" to use armored vehicles to break into a Basra jail to free two of their colleagues, British officials said Tuesday, but Iraqi authorities denounced the operation as "very unfortunate."

The Iraqis had said the British soldiers were detained Monday after opening fire on police in the southern city, killing one officer. A government spokesman, however, said Tuesday that the men, wearing civilian clothes, were arrested because they were "acting very suspiciously" and trying to gather information. It was impossible to reconcile the two claims.

British officials maintain the men were illegally detained and then handed over to Shiite militiamen. Fearing the soldiers would be killed, the British said, they acted quickly and properly to rescue them.

Mohammed al-Waili, the governor of Basra Province, confirmed Tuesday the two Britons are being held by members of one of three Shiite militias operating in the city, many of them doubling as police.

British Defense Minister John Reid said laws under which the Iraqi government was given sovereignty in summer 2004 require that coalition forces detained by Iraqi authorities must be handed over to the U.S.-led multinational force.

"I understand also that the minister of the Interior, at the highest level, instructed that they should be (handed over), that the local judicial authorities said the same," Reid told the British Broadcasting Corp.

"And that is why in the course of the day, while we were negotiating, in view of that fact that they weren't handed over, we got increasingly worried and the commander on the spot, with hindsight, was absolutely right to do what he did, because we discovered they weren't in the police station, they were somewhere else, but are now safe," said Reid...