Ten insurgents killed in Iraq violence

US troops killed 10 insurgents in an ethnically-mixed city north of Baghdad, while 10 Iraqi troops died in two separate attacks north-east of the capital in a surge of violence following a relative lull last week.

A US statement said soldiers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment killed the 10 insurgents in Tal Afar, 260 miles north of Baghdad. American troops suffered no losses.

Insurgents, however, struck back twice against Iraqi army positions in Khalis, 45 miles north of Baghdad.

The first assault began at 5am when gunmen firing mortars, machine guns and semi-automatic weapons stormed an Iraqi checkpoint, killing eight Iraqi soldiers, Khalis police chief Colonel Mahdi Saleh said.

One and a half hours later, a car bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol passed, killing two soldiers, Saleh said. Three soldiers and three civilians were in both attacks.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks in a web statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.

On June 15, a suicide bomber wearing an army uniform blew himself up in an Iraqi army mess hall in Khalis, killing 26 soldiers.

Although US forces suffered no losses in the Tal Afar fighting, two US Marines were killed on Sunday by “indirect fire” – presumably mortar shells – in the insurgent stronghold of Hit along the Syrian border, the US command said.

The victims were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division, which has been assisting Iraqi forces trying to secure the town after fighting there last month.

Clashes in the north and west of the country followed violence on Sunday in which about 60 people were killed in a series of suicide attacks, car bombings and ambushes.

The US military, meanwhile, released Cyrus Kar, a 44-year-old aspiring filmmaker from Los Angeles who had been detained in Iraq for nearly two months, officials said. Kar, an Iranian-American, was taken into custody on May 17 near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, when potential bomb parts were found in a taxi in which he was riding.

His family had filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of violating his civil rights and holding him after the FBI cleared him of suspicion.

In a news conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari criticised US and multi-national forces for shooting at civilians who act suspiciously near patrols or military areas, but a spokesman for the US command blamed the problem on the growing use of suicide car bombs as a weapon.

The bloodiest attack on Sunday occurred in Baghdad when a man dressed in civilian clothes detonated two explosive-laden belts among a crowd of Iraqi army recruits, killing 25 others and wounding nearly 50, US and hospital officials said.

It was the deadliest attack in the capital since July 2, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a recruiting centre in west Baghdad’s Yarmouk neighbourhood, killing 20.

Also Sunday, a Shiite mother and eight of her children were found shot dead in their beds in Baghdad. One boy survived, police said. The father, who was not home at the time, blamed the killings on sectarian hatred.

Tensions between minority Sunnis and majority Shiites have risen. Most insurgents are believed to be Sunnis, and Shiites dominate the new Iraqi government.

Suicide bombers struck elsewhere across the country Sunday.

At the Walid border crossing into Syria, two suicide car bombers killed at least seven Iraqi customs officials.

Near the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber rammed into a police convoy carrying an Iraqi brigadier general, killing five policemen, the US military and police said. The senior officer was not injured. Police said they detained three Iraqis on Monday in connection with the attack.

A suicide car bomb in Kirkuk killed at least four civilians on Sunday, according to police. A second car bomb was rigged to explode as rescuers rushed to the scene, but it was found and detonated by American troops.

Two other suicide car bombers struck near Fallujah, killing an Iraqi civilian and wounding a Marine, the US Marines said.