Rockets kill soldiers and civilians

Five US soldiers were killed and seven injured when two rockets slammed into a US base north of Baghdad, US military officials said.

Two 57-mm rockets hit the base in Taji, said Air Force Lt. Col. Sam Hudspath.

Taji is a former Iraqi air force base 12 miles north of Baghdad that is now used by the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division.

Hours after the attack on the base, a rocket strike slammed into the neighbourhood's crowded Chicken Market, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, residents said.

Human flesh could be seen among scattered market goods and burned-out cars in the chaotic street. It was unclear who fired the rocket or what its intended target was.

Fighting in Sadr City, an eastern mostly Shiite district in the capital, came when US forces launched raids against suspected militiamen, sparking a battle that the military said killed one or two Iraqis.

During the fighting, three Iraqi girls were badly burned when a shell exploded in their bedroom while they slept.

Meanwhile a car bomb exploded near the main US base in the northern city of Tikrit, killing at least three people.

A suicide bomber appeared to be driving the car when it exploded outside the outer wall of the base, said Master Sgt. Robert Powell of the 1st Infantry Division.

The car detonated near a row of shops outside the base, Powell said. Witnesses reported seeing wreckage of vehicles with at least three bodies.

The blast targeted a convoy of Iraqi officials heading to the Mayor office in Tikrit, they said.