BAGHDAD - The US military on Sunday announced the death in Iraq of three more of its soldiers, as insurgents shot dead five Iraqi policemen and at least five other people were killed in a bomb attack.
Police also found the bodies of eight people, one of them a headless woman with a note attached denouncing her as a spy, six of them Iraqi soldiers and the eighth a businessman who was working with US troops.
The latest unrest came as one of the groups blamed for many attacks mocked claims by Iraqi security chiefs that the noose was tightening around its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country's most wanted man.
Two American soldiers were killed in a bomb and gunfire attack in Baghdad on Saturday, the US army said.
And a US marine was killed in action Saturday in the violence-plagued province of Babil, south of the capital, the military said.
On Sunday, a bomb ripped through the town hall in Hamma al-Alil, near the main northern city of Mosul, killing at least five people and wounding three, Iraqi security officials said.
According to the US military, there were eight dead and two wounded in the attack, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Mosul, where US troops and insurgents have battled since November.
In Mosul itself, four police officers patrolling in the west of the city were shot dead by unknown attackers firing from a car, a police commander said.
Another policeman was killed and one wounded when their patrol came under fire in the Amerli area, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
South of Baghdad, the bodies of five Iraqis wearing army uniform were found late Saturday, said a doctor at the hospital in the city of Kut where the corpses were taken.
"The five bodies had no identification papers and were discovered with their throats slashed" in a car in al-Suwaira, the doctor said.
Police found the body of a headless woman in the western Al-Adl district of Baghdad.
"A piece of paper, with the word spy written on it, was found near the body of the woman dressed in a black robe," a policeman said.
A soldier's body was found in the Siniyah area, some 200 kilometres north of the capital, while the bullet-riddled corpse of a businessman who worked with US forces was found in an area 120 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Insurgents regularly kill Iraqis suspected of working with Iraq's interim government and US forces. Rebels often resort to fear tactics like drive-by shootings and the mutilation of bodies as they seek to control areas.
Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch on Sunday denied claims that the net was closing in on Zarqawi.
"We assure our brothers that our leaders are in the best of health ... and in command of their men," said an Internet statement purportedly from Zarqawi's network.
On Saturday, Iraq's national security chief said government forces were hot on the heels of the Jordanian-born Zarqawi after the arrest of a leading lieutenant was announced the previous day.
02/27/2005 17:48 GMT