A suicide bomber killed 13 people in an attack today next to the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad housing the interim government and US embassy, while eight US Marines died in combat in western Iraq.

Seven US Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq’s restive Anbar province, a vast region comprising the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said today.

US forces have conducted a raid to capture a "high value target" associated with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an area north-west of Baghdad and detained three people.

Eight American Marines were killed in fighting west of Baghdad today, and a car bomb killed at least seven people in an attack on an Arab television station in the capital.

US warplanes, tanks and artillery units bombed the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah today, killing at least eight people and wounding 15, hospital officials and witnesses said.