MOSUL, Iraq, Dec 31 (AFP) - The group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility Friday for car bomb attacks that killed a US soldier in Mosul two days ago, as two civilians died in an attack on Iraqi forces in Baiji.
A CD distributed by the group, showed a Russian-made military truck and a car exploding against a US patrol and a combat outpost.
Other footage on the CD, released in the northern city of Mosul and whose authenticity could not be verified, shows a masked man reading a statement taking credit for the attack in the name of the Al-Qaeda Group of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers.
"We swear to God that we lost only two of our mujahedeen and they are the ones that carried out the suicide attacks," said the man, adding that only one insurgent was wounded in ensuing clashes.
He went on to claim that dozens of US soldiers were killed in the blasts.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, was officially anointed by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on Monday as the terror group's "emir" in the violence-ravaged country.
Another Al-Qaeda-linked group, Ansar al-Sunna has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on December 21 at a mess hall on a US military base in Mosul that killed 22 people.
It was the worst single attack against the US military in Iraq.
Separately, the US military said it killed one insurgent and wounded another when it responded to fire from a mosque southwest of the city. Afterwards, Iraqi forces entered the Nabi Sheet mosque and searched it.
"The interim Iraqi government and the Nineveh provincial governor have made it clear that any mosque used as a base of operations to conduct attacks against ISF (Iraqi security forces) or MNF (multinational forces) is subject to search and attack," said the statement
The US military said it had arrested 15 people suspected of "ties to terrorist cell in northern Iraq" in raids in central Mosul and the village of Al-Shurah, north of the city.
A commander of a Zarqawi-linked cell in Mosul, Abu Marwan, was arrested by US troops in Mosul on December 23, the Iraqi government said on Wednesday.
Highlighting the worsening security situation in the north, a car bomb exploded Friday near a patrol of the Iraqi national guard in the refinery town of Baiji, south of Mosul, killing two civilians and wounding six guards, according to a US military spokesman.

12/31/2004 17:32 GMT - AFP