9 Iraqis, 3 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Separate Attacks

"Unknown attackers in a car fired at a police patrol vehicle, killing Lieutenant Hakam Hilmi instantly and 2nd Lieutenant Ibrahim Khaled," police Captain Walid Ismail told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Three other policemen traveling in the convoy were wounded in a blaze of gunfire, he added.

"A civilian whose identity is not yet known was also killed when gunfire hit his car as it came down the road at the time of the attack," Ismail said, adding that the attackers escaped.

Policeman Maher Mohamed had told Reuters: "We were standing at our checkpoint and saw some cars come by. From one of them, a grenade was thrown and Kalashnikovs were fired at us."

He added that the attackers wore checkered headdresses around their faces.

A pool of blood lay on the side of the highway, along with a police vehicle pockmarked by bullets.

The incident happened about 30 kilometers north of Fallujah – where anti-occupation attacks and sentiments are on the upswing.

Resistance fighters have often targeted Iraqi police and others cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation.

More Deaths

Separately, police and hospital officials in Falluja said a bus carrying women home from work was attacked at a U.S. base near Habbaniya Wednesday.

Police said the Iraqi women are taken every day by minibus to the base west of the capital, where they work as cleaners and cooks, adding the buses had been shot at before.

Also In Fallujah, a U.S. military patrol opened a fatal fire on two guards in a car showroom in the city.

The Americans shot the guards unprovoked, leaving cars exhibited inside with damages, reported Al-Jazeera television.

The shooting is expected to further fan anti-American sentiments among local inhabitants, more than eight of them were killed by U.S. fire while protesting against the occupation in April.

Iraqis have also been enraged by the heavy presence of foreign forces, occupying rooftops and patrolling the streets, and their military provocations including house-to-house searches and massive detentions.

Occupation Fatalities

The U.S. occupation army confirmed Thursday the killing of three U.S. soldiers in northeastern Baghdad a day earlier.

"Three U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday and one wounded near Baquba in a mortar or rocket attack," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Williams told AFP.

Major Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said rockets were used in the attack on the division and several other soldiers received minor injuries.

The new fatalities up to at least 505 the number of U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Washington launched its invasion in March, including 349 in action, according to a Reuters count.

A massive truck bomb blew up on January 18, at the main gate to the U.S.-led occupation headquarters in Baghdad, killing 23 people, including at least two American soldiers, and wounding 99 others.

On January 17, three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi troopers were killed when a roadside bomb blew apart their armored vehicle.

South of the capital near Diwaniya, a Spanish Civil Guard police commander was shot in the head and seriously wounded during a joint raid of a house with Iraqi police, the Spanish Defence Ministry said.

Spain’s Defense Ministry said the wounded commander, Gonzalo Perez Garcia, was head of security for a Spanish military brigade in Iraq.

The attack is a further setback for the Spanish government, already facing public protest over committing troops to occupied Iraq.

Seven Spanish intelligence officers were killed on November 29, in a spiral of attacks across the chaos-mired country.