BAGHDAD - Twelve people, including three US soldiers, were killed in insurgent attacks Friday and 16 bodies recovered from the streets, security sources said.
The three soldiers died when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in Babil province south of the capital, the US military said.
The deaths took US military losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,413, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
Six Iraqi civilians were killed and two wounded when gunmen opened fire on them from a passing car as they bought alcohol from a shop, an interior ministry official said.
In Kadimiyah, a Shiite neighbourhood of north Baghdad, gunmen killed an Iraqi army major, the official added.
North of the capital, two policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mugdadiyah, police said.
A full 16 bodies were recovered from various parts of the capital, the latest victims of a spate of extra-judicial killings.
On Thursday, six engineers working for the state-run North Oil Company were kidnapped by gunmen near the refinery town of Baiji, police captain Ahmed Abdullah said.
They were on their way to Baiji refinery "when gunmen stopped their minibus and kidnapped them." The driver was also abducted, Abdullah added.
05/05/2006 18:50 GMT