SAMARRA - Ten people were killed Tuesday in attacks north of Baghdad while around 70 insurgents including a suspected Al-Qaeda member were arrested in raids around Iraq, hospital and security sources said.
But the level of violence eased on the eve of an international conference on Iraq in Brussels, following two days of grinding conflict that left at least 77 people dead.
In the northern town of Tal Afar, four mortar rounds smashed into the Al-Saad neighborhood, killing two people and wounding six, including two women and two children, police chief Colonel Najem Abdellah and a local doctor said.
Earlier in the day, insurgents had planted explosives in Tal Afar town hall, killing two and wounding two others, the police chief said. Guards posted at the building escaped.
But the insurgents returned, poured oil around the premises and set the building on fire. It was not known if the town hall had been burnt to the ground.
"Two days ago, the office was attacked by insurgents with machine-guns while employees were inside," he said, adding that municipal employees had escaped that attack.
Near Baquba, an Iraqi soldier was killed as he went to work, and a Turkish truck driver was shot dead as he left an Iraqi-US base east of Balad, army officers and police said.
Police added that an insurgent had killed himself accidentally while preparing an explosive device.
West of Baiji, two Iraqi policemen and two civilians died in a firefight between police and gunmen, an officer reported.
A body showing signs of torture was found near Hilla, south of Baghdad, three days after the victim was kidnapped, and north of the capital in Shorgat the army discovered the bodies of a businessman and soldier who had been shot.
South of Baquba, however, 40 suspected insurgents were arrested by security forces during an operation in Bohruz that also seized arms, explosives and rockets, an army colonel said.
Thirty more people were detained south of Baghdad in the village of Mualha.
The Iraqi government also announced the recent arrest of Hussein Khalil Ibrahim, also known as Abu Ali, a suspected member of Al-Qaeda's network in Iraq.
Ali was said to be an aide to Abu Talha, who authorities said last week had also been arrested, and allegedly coordinated mortar attacks and ambushes against US forces in and around the volatile northern city of Mosul.
The Organisation of Al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been blamed for many of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq. Zarqawi has a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head.
06/21/2005 16:46 GMT