A ROADSIDE bomb killed three US soldiers south of Baghdad yesterday and coalition forces shot to death three insurgents in Samarra — the site of the bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in February that set off a wave of sectarian killings in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein’s government is believed to have buried as many as 300,000 opponents in 263 mass graves that dot the Iraqi landscape, a human rights official in the US administration said today.

The US say Muhammad Hazmaq al-Zubaydi - number 18 on a list of the 55 most wanted figures from Saddam Hussein's regime - has been arrested.