SAMARRA, Iraq, Jan 22 (AFP) - Four Iraqi soldiers and a truck driver were killed in three separate attacks north of Baghdad on Saturday, according to military and police officials.
"Unidentified attackers fired six mortar rounds against an Iraqi army post east of Dhuluiya. Three soldiers were killed and one wounded," Captain Mohammed Jassem said.
He added that the mortar fire followed the arrest of two people suspected of carrying out attacks on US and Iraqi forces in the region.
Another soldier died and one was wounded when gunmen ambushed an army patrol in Al-Tharthar district, nine kilometres (nearly six miles) west of Samarra, which lies some 125 kilometres (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Captain Saad Amjad said.
Meanwhile police Lieutenant-Colonel Fares Mahdi said gunmen using automatic weapons killed a truck driver in a Turkish convoy ferrying food to US troops near Al-Sharqat, some 330 kilometres (205 miles) north of the capital.
The nationality of the driver was not immediately known.
In two other attacks, 10 mortar rounds hit a US-Iraqi coordination post causing severe damage but no casualties, police in Al-Dawr, just outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, said.
Insurgents also blew up the headquarters of Al-Dawr municipality overnight, police said.
01/22/2005 19:59 GMT - AFP