Seven civilians killed in roadside bomb after insurgents clash with US troops

INSURGENT attacks across Iraq yesterday left seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers dead, a day after US troops killed 26 militants in a clash - the highest, single-incident insurgent death toll reported in four months.

In the deadliest attack yesterday on civilians, a roadside bomb killed four women and three children in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, police Captain Falah al-Muhmadawi said.

An Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 160 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell landed on his camp, while another soldier died and four others were wounded when an Iraqi army vehicle was hit by a rocket propelled grenade in western Baghdad, a Defence Ministry official said.