Suicide bomber kills three Iraqis, amid clashes

SAMARRA, Iraq - Three Iraqis were killed on Wednesday when a suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy in the northern city of Samarra, a local police official said.

In a separate incident, an Iraqi policeman was killed when insurgents opened fire on US soldiers in the town that the Iraqi interim government said it had seized from guerrillas after a major offensive in early October.

There were no immediate reports of US casualties.

In another restive Sunni Muslim town, Ramadi, two Iraqis were killed in shooting after a suicide bomber had attacked a US military checkpoint, witnesses and a hospital official said.

An official at Ramadi hospital said the two dead Iraqis were civilians. There was no immediate word from the US military on the fighting there.

Witnesses also said there had been overnight shooting in eastern Ramadi, and mortars were fired at a US base west of the city centre.

US Marines took control of the nearby city of Fallujah last month in an offensive against Sunni Muslim guerrillas.

But Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad, remains a base for rebels opposed to Iraq's interim government and their US allies.

US and Iraqi forces hope to improve security ahead of a national election scheduled for January 30.

But guerrillas have kept up attacks even after Fallujah, their most important stronghold, was destroyed by US warplanes and tanks.

At dawn on Wednesday, insurgents carried out a car bomb attack on a US patrol in southern Baghdad. It was not immediately clear if there were US casualties. Witnesses said several Iraqis were wounded.

- REUTERS