Three suicide bombers tried to attack an American military base in the Iraqi of Samarra today and wounded three US soldiers while a car bomb killed five Iraqis in the north of the country.

US and Iraqi forces killed 85 militants at a suspected training camp along the marshy shores of a remote lake, one of the highest guerrilla death tolls of the two-year insurgency, officials said.

Insurgents launched a series of apparently co-ordinated attacks in this city north the Iraqi capital today, killing seven soldiers and five police, police and medical officials said.