3 GIs, 9 Iraqi soldiers killed in attacks

The soldiers were killed Sunday at around 8:00 pm (1600 GMT).

The deaths were the first US casualties in or near the city since US military reinforcements began arriving Saturday to quell the raging sectarian violence that has engulfed Baghdad despite a massive security crackdown since June.

The latest fatalities took the US military death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,590, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

A suicide truck bomber struck the provincial headquarters of an Iraqi police commando force north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least nine troops and wounding 10 civilians, police said.

Iraqi and US forces also raided a Shia militia stronghold in Baghdad, triggering a gunbattle that left three people dead, while 12 people were killed in other attacks, including five in a drive-by shooting against a barber shop.

The truck carrying vegetables drove through razor-wire barricades around the two-story building of the Interior Ministry's police commandos, which is located near an intersection in central Samarra, police Capt. Laith Mohammed said.

The building was virtually leveled, said policeman Mohammed Ali, who witnessed the aftermath of the attack. He said three houses nearby were severely damaged and three cars were destroyed.

US forces sealed off the area and rescue workers dug through the rubble.

Samarra, 100km north of Baghdad, was the site of a bomb attack that destroyed a revered Shia shrine on Feb. 22, setting off a wave of deadly sectarian attacks that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks across northern Iraq in recent days that have tested the capabilities of Iraq's US-trained security forces.

In Baghdad, sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district about 1 a.m. Monday and persisted for more than an hour. Iraqi government television and aides to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said US aircraft attacked buildings in the area.