Insurgents kill 23 Iraqis in wave of bombings

While much attention was focused on Baghdad, where hundreds of thousands of Shia activists marched in support of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, the worst of the violence erupted well beyond the capital in the far north.

Two US Marines were killed in action in separate incidents in Iraq's restive Anbar province west of Baghdad, the US military said.

The marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died on Thursday.

The northern city of Mosul woke to a dawn blitz of six bombs and a hail of mortars, which killed at least nine police officers and triggered a six-hour gunbattle in which an unknown number of insurgents were killed.

Nineveh Province's police chief, Major General Wathiq al-Hamdani, blamed fighters inspired by the Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden for the attack.

"These are members of al-Qaeda that we clashed with. We killed large numbers of them and we burned their trucks and vehicles. We are in full control of the situation. The people of Mosul were very helpful," he told state television.

Mosul, 370km from Baghdad, has a majority Sunni Arab population and significant Turkmen and Kurdish ethnic minorities. It is often the scene of violent attacks on security forces.

"The situation is still volatile, and clashes are continuing in parts of the city," a senior officer told AFP from Mosul, adding that a vehicle curfew had been imposed from 10 am (0600 GMT) Friday until 6 am on Saturday.