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.

A SUICIDE car bomb outside an Iraqi army recruitment centre and other attacks killed a dozen people and wounded more than 50 yesterday.

Iraqi officials suspect that 50 US trained Iraqi soldiers murdered by insurgents – many of them execution-style – may have been set up by rebel infiltrators in their ranks.

A coalition soldier trying to defuse a roadside bomb was shot and killed by insurgents in Iraq, the US military said today.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan came out against holding elections in Iraq before the June 30 transfer of power to Iraqis on a day when the number of US soldiers killed reached 545.

Two more American soldiers were killed by roadside bomb in Iraq today.

Insurgents launched new attacks against US occupation troops today as the United States was reported ready to make major changes in its blueprint for handing over power to a new Iraqi government.

THREE American soldiers were killed and another wounded in a large explosion west of Baghdad yesterday.

Three American soldiers were killed and another wounded in a large explosion west of Baghdad today.

A roadside bomb exploded next to a passing US military convoy in central Iraq today, and a second bomb went off when reinforcements arrived, damaging vehicles and inflicting several casualties, witnesses said.

US soldiers arrested nearly 50 people and confiscated weapons in several raids in Iraq’s volatile Sunni Triangle today after a series of bombings that killed six US soldiers.

A suicide bomber today blew up his vehicle at a main gate to the headquarters compound of the US-led coalition in Baghdad, killing about 20 people in the deadliest attack since the capture of Saddam Hussein last month.

A car bomb exploded outside the main gate to the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition today, killing 23 people, including two Americans who may have been civilian contractors, U.S. officials said.

AN explosion at a police station in western Iraq yesterday killed 16 policemen and two civilians, including a seven-year-old girl, and wounded 33 more, the US military said.

A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station this morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the US military said.

A car bomb exploded this morning at a police station in this town west of Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 19 more, Iraqi police said.

A car bomb exploded this morning at a police station in a town west of Baghdad, causing about 17 deaths and 30 casualties, witnesses and the US military said.

The heart of the American occupation of Iraq came under attack in Baghdad tonight when mortars exploded inside a former presidential palace now used as the coalition headquarters.

Leaflets distributed in Baghdad called for a "Day of Resistance" today at the start of a three-day general strike to protest the US occupation of the city a day after fresh anti-American violence left two Iraqis dead.

AN American soldier was killed and three wounded yesterday in separate roadside bombings which prompted a fierce eight-hour firefight where US attack aircraft, tanks and helicopters battled Iraqi resistance fighters.

THREE American soldiers were killed and 13 injured in a mortar attack and a bombing in the volatile region of central Iraq, the US military reported yesterday.

EIGHT American troops were reported to have been killed in an ambush on the main road of a town in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle yesterday.

The police chief in Khaldiyah in Iraq has been killed.

US FORCES launched a massive operation early yesterday to crush insurgents and capture senior figures from the ousted regime in a show of force designed to stem a wave of deadly attacks on US troops.

US forces today launched a massive operation in Iraq to crush insurgents and capture senior figures from Saddam Hussein’s fallen regime.

A SNIPER killed a US soldier on patrol in Baghdad with a single shot, while gunmen targeted Iraqi officials in drive-by shootings designed to put them off co-operating with Americans, the military said yesterday.

US troops swept through towns and villages west of Baghdad today, arresting suspected resistance leaders and searching for banned weapons.