February 27, 2005 - The US military has 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.
The US Army said two American soldiers were killed in a bomb and gunfire attack in Baghdad on Saturday.
The military also said a US marine was killed in action on Saturday in the violence-plagued province of Babil, south of the capital.
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.
The US military said there were eight dead and two wounded in the attack, 20 kilometres 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.
Police said another policeman was killed and one wounded when their patrol came under fire in the Amerli area, some 180 kilometres north of Baghdad.
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 also 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.
- AFP
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