A car bomb that exploded near a US convoy in the western city of Ramadi killed two civilians and wounded at least four, witnesses claimed today.
They said the car blew up in the centre of the Sunni Muslim city without damaging the convoy. The US military could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ramadi is a hotbed of anti-US insurgency and is among towns that US and Iraqi forces will have to pacify if nationwide elections are to go ahead on time in January.
Iraqi security forces and US troops also patrolled the battered streets of Samarra, as normal life began returning after a US led assault wrested the city from rebels.
Some 3,000 US troops and 2,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by US planes and artillery, stormed Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, in a 36-hour weekend assault to dislodge an estimated 500 to 1,000 guerrillas roaming the mainly Sunni city.
US forces said they killed 125 fighters and captured 88 in the Samarra assault, which destroyed dozens of buildings and, according to locals, inflicted a heavy toll on civilians.