US assault kills 8 Iraqi insurgents

US forces stormed an insurgent bomb-making facility early Sunday morning near Hamaniyah, 22km west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

Five suspected rebels were killed in an ensuing firefight, while three more suspected insurgents were killed when the US ground commander called in "air support" to target their machine-gun fire, the statement read.

Numerous weapons, ammunition, and falsified documents were found in the targeted safehouse, it added.

In other violence, a civilian was killed and six others wounded when a minibus packed with explosives blew up near Mustansriyah University in eastern Baghdad, police said.

One Iraqi bystander was killed Sunday and three wounded, including two policemen, when a roadside bomb exploded as a police patrol passed by in eastern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

A civilian was killed in a similar roadside blast against a police patrol in western Baghdad, which also left two policemen wounded.