Guerrillas killed two United States soldiers and wounded a third in an ambush in western Iraq, making November the bloodiest month since the war in the country began on March 20.

ROADSIDE bombings in central Iraq killed three US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded six other service members, the US military said yesterday.

Three American soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed and three other soldiers were wounded in a pair of roadside bombings in central Iraq.

One soldier attached to the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb exploded just west of Baghdad, the US military said.

Two American soldiers were killed today in attacks in Baghdad and a nearby town.

A BOMB exploded outside the house of one of Iraq's most important Shi'ite clerics yesterday, killing three guards and injuring 10 others.

US president George W Bush yesterday hailed the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons as the clearest sign yet that “the former regime is gone and will not be coming back.”

US SOLDIERS backed by helicopters and tanks raided homes, rounded up suspects and confiscated weapons in the restive town of Fallujah yesterday, part of a nationwide campaign to root out anti-American insurgents who’ve been stepping up attacks.

GUNMEN opened fire on American troops at a checkpoint early yesterday, killing two US soldiers and wounding nine others in the troubled town of Fallujah – a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein’s fallen Ba’ath Party, the US military said.

Seven US soldiers were wounded today when two grenades were thrown over a wall and into an American compound in the tense Iraqi town of Fallujah.

UP to 120,000 extra US troops are to be sent to Iraq as Allied leaders faced the prospect of a drawn-out siege of Baghdad. News of the deployment came after the Iraqis promised their capital would become a graveyard for the coalition.