Roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers in separate attacks today in Diyala province and Baghdad, and a car bomb claimed 30 more lives in a wholesale food market in a part of the Iraqi capital where sectarian tensions are on the rise.

Insurgents killed nine Iraqi soldiers today in a town north of Baghdad – seven of them in an armed assault on a checkpoint and two others in a car bombing more than an hour later, Iraqi officials said.

An attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two US soldiers and wounded four, an official said today.

An explosion near a group of US soldiers north of Baghdad killed and wounded several troops today.

A roadside bomb killed seven US soldiers in north-west Baghdad and two Marines were killed in western Iraq, the deadliest day for American forces since a suicide attack on a US base last month.

A suicide car bomber detonated an explosion near a US patrol today, injuring two Iraqi policemen and two US soldiers along the main highway leading to Baghdad’s international airport, according to US and Iraqi officials.

A suicide attack and roadside bombings killed six American soldiers as coalition troops stepped up pressure on Sunni insurgents before this week’s start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

An Iraqi guardsman, three civilians and five US soldiers were killed when insurgents detonated a car bomb and levelled a military headquarters in the city of Samarra with a massive mortar barrage, the military said.

Insurgents launched coordinated attacks against police and government facilities across Sunni Muslim-dominated areas of central and northern Iraq, killing at least 23 people, including three US soldiers today.

Four American soldiers were killed today in the Iraqi Sunni city of Ramadi.

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.

A SUICIDE car bomber wounded 58 US soldiers and three Iraqis yesterday when he charged the gates of a US military base and blew up his vehicle as troops opened fire.

It is being reported that four American soldiers have been killed after a helicopter crashed in Pakistan.