Clashes have killed at least 22 Iraqis in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City where US forces and militiamen loyal to a rebel Shia cleric have fought sporadic battles since April.
An Iraqi policeman surveys a damaged car, following an assassination attempt against Baghdad governor Ali Radhi al-Haydary
A rocket-propelled grenade attack killed a US soldier and wounded two others in the slum, the US army said. Six other US soldiers have been killed in attacks in the Baghdad area since yesterday afternoon.
The attacks raise the official Pentagon US death toll to at least 994 since the start of the war in Iraq.
A Health Ministry spokeswoman said clashes had killed 15 Iraqis since this morning. At least seven others were reported killed in overnight clashes.
Sadr City was not included in a peace deal which ended three weeks of fighting in Najaf in August between US and Iraqi troops and fighters loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
But fighting in the slum had largely died down since the Najaf peace deal. The Health Ministry said clashes in Baghdad had killed 33 Iraqis and injured nearly 200 in the 24 hours until this morning.
A roadside bomb detonated in Baghdad this morning as the convoy of the city governor was passing.One bystander was killed but the governor, Ali Radhi al-Haydary, was unhurt.
Insurgents have regularly tried to assassinate senior Iraqi officials.
Yesterday a car bomb attack on a US patrol outside the rebel-held Sunni Muslim town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, killed seven US marines and three Iraqi National Guardsmen, in the deadliest single attack on US forces in five months.
US tanks and warplanes pounded targets in Falluja today. There were no immediate reports of casualties.