BAGHDAD, Iraq — A British soldier was killed in a roadside bombing today, the second member of the country's armed forces to die in Iraq in as many days and the 100th fatality since the conflict began nearly three years ago, officials said.

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and six wounded in a gunbattle today in Buhriz, a tense Sunni Arab town 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. Police also said a roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol in Samarra, but there was no word on casualties.

Authorities said, meanwhile, there was no word on kidnapped U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, who appeared weeping and veiled in a new videotape aired by Al-Jazeera.

In Tokyo, Japan's Kyodo News agency said Japan will begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in March and complete the pullout by May, ending its largest military mission since the end of World War II.

The roadside bomb exploded early today south of Basra, killing one British soldier and wounding three from the 7th Armoured Brigade, British and Iraqi officials said. Another British soldier was fatally wounded Monday in Maysan province.

By The Associated Press

The 8,000-strong British contingent is based in the Shiite south, which is less violent than the Sunni Arab areas to the north where most of the 136,000 U.S. troops operate.

In the video broadcast on al-Jazeera Monday, Carroll was crying and wore a conservative Islamic veil as she spoke to the camera, sitting in front of a yellow and black tapestry. The Al-Jazeera newscaster said she appealed for U.S. and Iraqi authorities to free all women prisoners to help "in winning her release."

The video was dated Saturday — two days after the U.S. military released five Iraqi women from custody. The U.S. military was believed be holding about six more. It was unclear how many women were held by Iraqi authorities.

Carroll, 28, a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, was seized Jan. 7 by the previously unknown Revenge Brigades, which threatened to kill her unless all women prisoners were released. Al-Jazeera did not report any deadline or threat to kill her Monday.