BAGHDAD (AFP) - Six British and US soldiers have been killed in attacks in Iraq over the past 24 hours, while warplanes continued to pound rebel-held Fallujah and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi tried to rally European support for his battered country.
A suicide car bomb and mortar fire at a checkpoint killed three newly redeployed British soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter on Thursday.
Two US marines died in action and four were wounded in Al-Anbar province west of the capital, where Fallujah and another key hotspot, Ramadi, are located.
And a US soldier was killed and one wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on Thursday night.
But in a glimmer of some good news a Nepalese kidnapped with two other foreigners five days ago was released, and Beirut said two Lebanese held hostage in Iraq for more than a month were back home.
The attack on the British happened southeast of Baghdad as troops from the Black Watch regiment crossed to the east bank of the River Euphrates for the first time.
Eight British soldiers were also wounded in the first major incident since several hundred of them were moved from southern Iraq to more dangerous areas near Baghdad to relieve US troops preparing for an offensive in Fallujah.
The redeployment, which began last week, has been hugely controversial in Britain. Prime Minister Tony Blair`s critics accuse him of sending troops into harm`s way largely as a symbolic gesture to show that the United States is not fighting alone in Iraq.
Seventy-three British troops have died in Iraq since US-led forces invaded the country last year, 34 of them in combat.
The latest US deaths brought to 1,121 the number of US military personnel killed since the invasion.
Many expect violence to increase in the war-ravaged country following US President George W. Bush`s re-election earlier this week.
But flushed with victory, Bush declared Thursday that Iraq was on the "path to stability" and appeared ready to try and repair frayed relations with allies who had clashed with him over his Iraq policies.
"Whatever our past disagreements, we share a common enemy. I`ll continue to reach out to our friends and allies ... to defeat the terrorists and to encourage freedom and democracy as alternatives to tyranny and terror," he said.
In Europe, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi Friday sounded a conciliatory tone ahead of Iraqi national elections expected to be held in January.
On his way to attend a European Union summit, Allawi created unease among some officials in Brussels by demanding that countries like France and Germany get off the sidelines and engage more in Iraq.
But he later said his administration wants "to forge a good and positive alliance" with Europe
"History is history, past is past. We need to start afresh and open a new chapter," he said.
Allawi has pledged to crush pockets of resistance before the polls, and in recent weeks US troops have massed around the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi amid mounting expectations of a double-pronged assault.
In a continuing barrage on the rebel bastion, US war planes launched five air strikes against suspected insurgent positions in Fallujah.
Starting at 4:40 pm (1340 GMT) Thursday and ending at 1:10 am Friday, planes supporting US marines on the ground destroyed suspected rebel fortifications and a weapons cache there, the military said.
Since Monday, Multi-National Forces-West have also captured and destroyed large numbers of mortars, rockets and other explosives.
In Ramadi, the capital of Al-Anbar, marines discovered and disarmed explosives that had been rigged in a youth centre and found more that two tons of explosives hidden in a mosque.
Fifty suspected insurgents were also netted in the sweep, the military added.
Thousands of residents have fled Fallujah since an air campaign began during the summer in the hunt for Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers, who the military believes are using the city as a base.
People who had been to Fallujah on Wednesday told AFP all roads to the city were either closed or clogged with US military vehicles and that only one rural road was open.
Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is Iraq`s most-wanted man, is blamed for some of the worst bombings and kidnappings in the country since last year`s invasion.
The Philippines was Friday seeking third-party contacts with the kidnappers of a Filipino accountant held in Baghdad, citing a lack of support from the United States and the Iraqi government.
Its charge d`affaires in Baghdad, Ricardo Endaya, said Filipino authorities remained clueless as to who had abducted Robert Tarongoy and what they want, while Tarongoy`s wife appealed for his life on Al-Jazeera television.
A Nepalese taken hostage Monday with Tarongoy and an unidentified American was released, Nepal`s foreign ministry said Friday.
Two Lebanese held hostage in Iraq for more than two months have also been freed and returned home, officials said in Beirut Friday.
More than 150 foreigners seized since April and some 30 hostages have been killed by their captors

11/05/2004 - 15:04 GMT - AFP