Violence kills 2 GIs, 18 Iraqis

Guerrillas killed 10 members of the Iraqi security forces in separate attacks north of Baghdad on Monday, officials said.

In an early morning attack in Buhriz, about 60 km from Baghdad, guerrillas opened fire on a checkpoint, killing five Iraqi policemen and wounding three others, police said.

They said six guerrillas were killed when police officers returned fire.

In the village of Dhabab, some 100 km from Baghdad, five soldiers were killed by gunmen while leaving for work or during their morning routine, the army said.

In Baghdad itself, a civilian was killed and at least six policemen wounded, as four separate bombings targeted police patrols.

A university professor, Nofal Ahmed, was killed by gunmen outside his home.

Two US soldiers were killed on Christmas day in separate attacks in Baghdad, according to the US military.

The two were killed in separate roadside bomb attacks on their patrols.

A US soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack near Kirkuk on Saturday and troops marking Christmas had no respite on Sunday; an Abrams tank, the giant bulwark of American armoured might, was left in flames after a dawn attack in eastern Baghdad -- witness said a roadside bomb blasted it.

A US military spokesman confirmed an attack on a tank and the military said later a US soldier had been killed when his vehicle was hit by an explosive device in Baghdad, though it was not immediately clear whether it was the same incident.