BAGHDAD, Feb 3 (AFP) - At least 26 Iraqis and a suicide bomber were killed within 24 hours in insurgent attacks, shattering a brief post-election lull in violence, security and medical sources said Thursday.
An Iraqi policeman was killed and five others wounded in an ambush west of Baghdad, the interior ministry said.
The police were travelling to the capital to pick up vehicles when they were attacked at Abu Ghraib, the source said.
An influential Sunni Muslim clerics association said the nephew of the group's head had been shot dead in the same area by US soldiers on Thursday morning.
"The US army opened fire and killed the nephew of Sheikh Hareth al-Dhari, who was driving in a car with a friend Thursday morning on a flyover," according to Omar Ragheb, a spokesman for the Committee of Muslim Scholars.
The US military said it had no record of US soldiers shooting dead an Iraqi by Abu Ghraib but said a roadside bomb killed a man at around 8:30 am (0530 GMT) in the same area.
Elsewhere, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded in a bomb attack Thursday morning in Yathrib, 75 kilometres (50 miles) north of Baghdad.
"A man was arrested at the scene of the attack but was freed due to lack of evidence," said Captain Amjad Saad.
A soldier and a woman were killed in a bomb blast targeting an army convoy at Shorgat, 300 kilometres (200 miles) north of Baghdad, a police officer said, explaining that the woman was driving behind the convoy.
In a rare case of civilians fighting back, villagers killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the elections, police said Thursday.
The insurgents launched the raid late Wednesday after earlier warning the inhabitants of Al-Mudhiryah, south of Baghdad, against taking part in Sunday's vote, said police captain.
The body of a driver working for the US military was found in the Tuz region, 200 kilometres (130 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.
An Iraqi employee on a US military base was gunned down and four of his colleagues wounded on their way to work Thursday in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, a medical source said.
Further north, a mortar attack on a US position Wednesday fell short and killed two civilians and wounded six in Tall Afar, the US military said.
"The insurgent minority attempted to fire mortar rounds at the Tall Afar Castle, instead missing and killing and wounding innocent Iraqis," a statement said.
Three other Iraqis were killed in separate attacks on Wednesday, a source at the interior ministry said.
One was a man who was working on a US military base in Baghdad and was shot dead by unknown gunmen. A suicide bomber died during an attack on a civilian car on the main road from the capital to Baghdad airport. No-one else was hurt in the incident, the US military said.
A member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading religious Shiite party, was also gunned down in northern Baghdad.
And in the southern province of Muthanna, an Iraqi army captain was killed and two others soldiers wounded in clashes with gunmen, two of whom were captured.
Two US marines were killed in action Wednesday in the conflict-torn western province of Al-Anbar, the US military said Thursday.
The deaths raised the toll for US troops killed in Iraq to 1,438 since the US-led invasion of March 2003, according to Pentagon figures.
02/03/2005 19:32 GMT - AFP