A British newspaper says one of its reporters has disappeared in Iraq and it fears he has been kidnapped by gunmen.

The Guardian newspaper says Rory Carroll, a 33-year-old Irishman, was on assignment in Baghdad when he vanished earlier Wednesday. The paper issued an appeal for information about his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, the British defense ministry reports that a British soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast late Tuesday in the southern city of Basra.

And the U.S. military says a roadside bomb also killed one American soldier and wounded two others late Tuesday south of Baghdad, near Iskandariyah.

The new violence was reported as Iraqi election officials continue counting and auditing results from Saturday's referendum on the constitution.