Four US soldiers killed in spate of Iraq attacks

Guerillas in Iraq staged multiple assaults that killed four US soldiers, keeping up violence that has raged on since Saddam Hussein's capture, the US military said yesterday.

As the Americans suffered new casualties, an Iraqi tribal chief was shot dead in the northern city of Mosul, and Baghdad residents stared in disbelief at a car split in half by a bomb explosion that killed two Iraqis inside.

A roadside bomb killed one US soldier and wounded another when it exploded by a convoy near Baquba, about 65 kilometres north of Baghdad, early yesterday. A second soldier was killed trying to defuse a bomb outside the town, a US spokesman said.

Two US soldiers were killed in a mortar attack on a US camp near Baquba on Thursday.

Guerillas also wounded two Polish soldiers in an ambush in southern Iraq, the latest of several attacks on the forces of countries which have answered Washington's call for troops to help it secure the country after the war to topple Saddam.

Violence also claimed the lives of more Iraqis seen as cooperating with the American-led occupation.

Gunmen killed a tribal chief who sat on the US-appointed local council in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi police said.

Sheikh Talal al-Khalidi's son was also killed in the incident, which follows a spate of attacks in Mosul on Iraqis working under the US-led administration ruling the country.

A grenade was thrown at Iraqi policemen, wounding one of them, when they arrived to investigate the slaying, police said.

In Baghdad, two Iraqis were killed when a bomb exploded on a road near the airport, witnesses said. It was not clear whether the device had been inside the car or had been planted outside.

The US military said it had arrested 66 people in a night swoop in Baghdad, including a major-general with links to Saddam and 20 other 'significant' figures.

The latest violence capped a Christmas Day marked by guerillas with rockets or mortar bombs that slammed into Baghdad hotels used by Westerners, embassies and an apartment block. Others landed near the US-led administration compound.

The US fatalities brought to 210 the number of US combat deaths since Washington - now under pressure over troop casualties as the 2004 presidential election approaches - announced the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1.

In Mosul, an army spokesman said three US troops were wounded yesterday in an ambush on their patrol. Witnesses said troops returning fire killed a taxi driver. The military said it knew of no civilian casualties.

A Polish-led division of multinational troops said the Polish troops were attacked on Thursday night with bombs and small-arms fire near Mahawil, about 80 kilometres south of the capital.

"Their injuries are not life-threatening," a spokesman for the division said.

Those attacks on US troops and their allies came as warning sirens wailed from within the US-led occupation headquarters in the ousted Iraqi leader's sprawling palace on the Tigris, where mortar fire thumped late on Thursday.

A spokesman for US-led forces confirmed only that there had been "impacts" in the area.

The Christmas guerilla attacks in Baghdad were the most extensive since Saddam's capture on December 13. US officials had warned of spectacular attacks during the holiday season.