A suicide car bomber ploughed into policemen waiting to collect their salaries at a police station west of the Iraqi town of Ramadi today, killing 12 people in the latest insurgent attack on Iraq's beleaguered security forces.
At least 10 people were wounded in the blast, and 90 per cent of the casualties were policemen, said Mr Nazar al-Hiti, a doctor in the town of Hit around 200 km west of Baghdad, where the dead and wounded were taken.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded as a US patrol went past, killing two American soldiers and wounding three. Thirteen US soldiers and two foreign civilians were also wounded in a mortar attack south of Baghdad. At least 968 US troops have been killed in action in Iraq and 9,000 have been wounded, most of them seriously.
Insurgents trying to drive out US-led soldiers and topple the US-backed government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have repeatedly attacked Iraqi police and soldiers.
The US military has warned that violence will worsen in Iraq as elections scheduled for January 30th approach. Leading Sunni Arab political parties want the elections postponed, saying their supporters will not be able to vote freely due to guerrilla violence mainly in Sunni areas of Iraq.
Sunni Arabs make up only around 20 per cent of Iraq's population but dominated the ruling elite during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Several Sunni parties say they will boycott the elections unless the government agrees to postpone them.