BOMB blasts killed four US marines in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops have deployed in recent weeks as part of an offensive in the country’s dangerous drug-producing region, an official said yesterday.

US forces seized hundreds of mortar rounds and rockets in a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad today, and detained two suspected terrorists.

A car bomb exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, wounding at least 10 Iraqi civilians, the US military said.

Rebels fired a rocket tonight at the headquarters of the US-led coalition after gunmen killed seven Iraqi policemen in attacks west of Baghdad.