SAMARRA, Iraq, Nov 6 (AFP) - At least 33 people were killed and 48 wounded as four car bombs and clashes rocked the restive Iraqi city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, on Saturday, medics and police said.
In Ramadi, west of the capital, 20 US soldiers were wounded while in Baghdad itself another three were wounded when a car bomb exploded near their convoy, the US military said.
Meanwhile, an aide to the powerful local Shiite iman Sheikh Sadreddin Al-Kobbanji in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad, revealed on Saturday that 12 Iraqi national guardsmen had been abducted there and killed on Thursday.
The violence in Samarra erupted barely a month after US and Iraqi troops stormed the Sunni Muslim bastion to regain control of it from rebel forces, and came as the military prepared for an expected similar assault on the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah.
"We have received 33 killed and 48 wounded," said Doctor Nawfal Mohammed at Samarra`s general hospital.
The dead, a mix of Iraqi police, soldiers and civilians, included Brigadier General Abdul Razak Mohammed al-Jarmani, the local head of a police rapid reaction force who died with five others in a double car bomb attack in front of Samarra`s local administration building, officials said.
Half an hour later a third car bomb exploded in front of a teachers` college in the city, causing some casualties. A fourth detonated at about 12:30 pm (0930 GMT) in the south of Samarra, killing 10 and wounding five, police said.
As the bombs rocked the city, masked gunmen stormed three police stations: one in the southern industrial zone, another in the centre and one in the east.
At the eastern Jubairiya station attackers held nine policemen at gunpoint, police officer Alaa Mohammed said.
An AFP correspondent said he saw dead policemen on the street in front of the central industrial zone station. People were seen fleeing the area.
The correspondent said US and Iraqi forces imposed a curfew starting at midday (0900 GMT) for an unknown duration as a US-Iraqi patrol found a stolen police truck laden with explosives in Samarra at about 9:30 am and destroyed it. One Iraqi national guardsman and four civilians were wounded in the blast.
Samarra has only experienced flashes of deadly violence since US and Iraqi troops raided the city, 125 kilometres (80 miles) north of Baghdad, at the start of October, supposedly to bring it back under government control.
The area had been a no-go zone for Iraqi and US forces since June.
The assault marked the first major offensive by US forces to reclaim a Sunni rebel bastion ahead of national elections set for January.
But a US military commander admitted after the brief operation that many rebel leaders simply went to ground as tension continued to flare in outlying areas south of Samarra like Al-Dhuluiya and Ishaki.
Troops have since massed around the flashpoint Sunni cities of Fallujah and Ramadi amid mounting expectations of a new assault as the government battles to restore order ahead of the landmark polls.
The US military spokesman who said 20 soldiers had been wounded in action in Ramadi on Saturday was unable to give further details.
Locals from the city, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, said a suicide car bomb exploded outside a US military base at about 12:50 pm (0950 GMT) in the Al-Fujariyah district, at the entrance of Ramadi.
Lifeless bodies of Iraqis caught in the attack were scattered on the road outside the base, according to witnesses.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi was killed and four other people, including three US soldiers, were wounded when a car bomb blew up by their convoy on the main road to Baghdad international airport, the US military said.
Outside the northern city of Mosul a Turkish truck driver was killed and two fuel trucks and a US military vehicle were destroyed in an ambush, the US military said.
In continued security operations, US and Iraqi troops detained 16 people suspected of attacking US-led forces in Baquba, 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
11/06/2004 17:18 GMT - AFP