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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents have infiltrated Iraq's security forces, a senior Iraqi official said, as the fallout continued over British forces' use of armed vehicles to smash their way into a police station to rescue two undercover soldiers.

The British government said it would not pull troops out of Iraq after the fury over the controversial rescue of two special forces soldiers arrested in Basra and allegedly handed over to local militia.

Iraq's National Security Adviser, Dr Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said he did not know how far security forces had been undermined by insurgents.

He told the BBC: "Our Iraqi security forces in general, police in particular, in many parts of Iraq, I have to admit, have been penetrated by some of the insurgents, some of the terrorists as well.

"I can't deny this. We are putting in place a very scrupulous, very meticulous vetting procedure in the process of recruiting a new batch of police and Iraqi army, which will, if you like, clean our security forces as well as stop any penetration in future from the insurgents and terrorists."

Al-Rubaie added: "I can't give you a percentage of the extent of the penetration, but I have to admit that the Iraqi security forces are penetrated, to what extent I don't know."

Meanwhile U.S. officials revealed that nine Americans, including five soldiers, were killed by bombs in Iraq during Monday and Tuesday.

Four troops, assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, were killed Monday in Ramadi, the U.S. military said. The deaths brought to 1,904 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq. (Full story)

In Basra Wednesday the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior said it was looking into what led to UK armored fighting vehicles bulldozing the wall of a Basra police station jail in a bid to free the special forces soldiers.

Inside, troops discovered that the two men had been handed over to the militia by Iraqi police and freed them.

The men's capture Monday came just a day after British forces in Basra arrested two leading members of the outlawed Mahdi Army which is loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and is widely believed to have heavily infiltrated the local Iraqi police, the UK's Press Association reported.

The two arrested men from the Mahdi Army were the group's Basra area commander, Sheikh Ahmad Majid al-Fartusi, and his aide Sajjat al-Basri, PA said.

According to PA, the two British men detained by police were members of the Special Air Service and appeared to have been quickly handed over to militiamen by police.

The mission to rescue them, which was condemned by many Iraqis, was launched amid fears they could face summary execution, PA said.

One Iraqi member of parliament said that following the arrest of the SAS men, the Mahdi Army had tried to take them hostage to exchange them for its two leaders.

"Four tanks invaded the area. A tank cannon struck a room where a policeman was praying," policeman Abbas Hassan told Reuters.

Standing next to mangled cars outside the police station and jail that he said were crushed by British military vehicles, he added: "This is terrorism. All we had was rifles."

A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the British operation against the jail had been "a very unfortunate development" but his office later released a statement saying there was no crisis in relations with the British.

Iraqi policemen at the jail Tuesday surveyed a mass of rubble, broken plywood and air conditioning units where their perimeter wall and a number of prefabricated structures once stood.

A number of flattened cars appeared to have been run over by British Warrior armored fighting vehicles.

The two special forces soldiers, who were travelling undercover, were arrested after allegedly becoming involved in a firefight with Iraqi police at a checkpoint. Iraqi officials claimed they had shot dead a local policeman and wounded at least one other.

The British soldiers are believed to have feared the men were really insurgents dressed in police uniforms, PA said.

British Defence Secretary John Reid defended the subsequent action by British troops against the Jamiat police station jail, saying it was "absolutely right."

"We do not have designs to stay (in Iraq) as an occupying imperial power. Nor are we going to cut and run because of terrorists," Reid was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The paper said that Reid and British defense chiefs would meet Iraqi PM al-Jaafari Wednesday in London to discuss security issues.

In dramatic scenes outside the jail Monday, British troops were confronted by an angry mob, hundreds strong, throwing stones and petrol bombs and several soldiers suffered minor injuries.

After they discovered the two SAS men were not in the jail, Iraqi police were confronted with a 30mm cannon and revealed they had been given to the militia.

Brigadier John Lorimer, commanding officer of 12 Mechanised Brigade in Basra, said: "We will be following up with the authorities in Basra why the soldiers were not immediately handed over to the multinational forces as Iraqi law shows that they should have been.

"It is of deep concern that British soldiers held by the police should then end up being held by militia," he added.

Iraq: Insurgents infiltrate police

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