Roadside bombs killed two US soldiers and two Iraqi children, as the toll from a coordinated guerrilla onslaught on Iraq’s holy Shiite city of Karbala rose to 19 dead.

ONE US soldier died in a rebel ambush and two others were killed in bomb explosions yesterday, one of the bloodiest days for the US military since the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13.

US troops rounded up suspected rebels today during house-to-house searches in strongholds of Saddam Hussein, capitalising on intelligence gleaned from the capture of the former Iraqi dictator.

Saddam Hussein loyalists rioted in Baghdad, ambushed a US patrol in Samarra, stormed the office of a US-backed mayor in Fallujah and battled American troops in Ramadi as cities in Iraq’s “Sunni Triangle” region seethed over the ex-dictator’s capture.

A US soldier was killed yesterday in an apparent drive-by shooting at a gas station in Iraq, the US military said.

Insurgents killed two US paratroopers and wounded another west of Baghdad today as the US military cracked down on residents of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit after guerrillas apparently shot down a Black Hawk helicopter there.

THE US military death toll in Iraq since major combat was declared over has surpassed the number killed during the war.

TWO US soldiers were killed and one was wounded in an ambush north of Baghdad while insurgents attacked a convoy setting off huge explosions in several vehicles.

Two US soldiers were killed and one was wounded in an ambush in Kirkuk today.

Two US military police were slightly injured today in a blast outside a US Army base, witnesses said.

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.

Police and US troops seized weapons during raids in Baghdad and in northern Iraq, US and Iraqi officials said today.

TWO US soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and a city to the west, the military reported yesterday. A third was reported to have died of a non-hostile gunshot wound in a separate incident.

US forces have captured seven men in a series of raids in Iraq targeting members of the Fedayeen Saddam militia, a spokesman said today.

Attackers used an ambulance for cover as they carried out a drive-by attack on American forces at one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in Iraq, a US military official said today.

An American soldier was killed and another was wounded today when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in northern Iraq, the US military said.

US TROOPS scoured a remote region north of Baghdad yesterday in a bid to track down guerrillas loyal to Saddam Hussein as one US soldier was killed and two wounded.

American forces in Iraq continue to close in on Saddam Hussein, conducted several top secret operations since killing his sons Uday and Qusay two weeks ago, the US military said today.

US troops blew up a 30ft statue of Saddam Hussein on horseback today, a day after a new tape apparently from the former Iraqi dictator urged his followers to continue a “holy war” against the Allies.

A truck carrying 999 bars of what may be gold has been impounded by US paratroopers in eastern Iraq.