Guerrillas attacked an Iraqi police post with assault rifles and a grenade today, killing two policemen and a civilian, hours after a mortar attack on a US base killed two soldiers and wounded another.
Insurgents also opened fire last night on a bus carrying Iraqi women home from work at a military base west of Baghdad, killing four and wounding six others. All the attacks were in the volatile "Sunni triangle" region around Baghdad.
The latest upsurge of violence came amid US talk of handing over political power to an Iraqi administration later this year and a dispute over whether this should be done before or after elections are held.
South of the capital near Diwaniya, a Spanish Civil Guard police commander was shot in the head and seriously wounded during a joint operation with Iraqi police against "members of a terrorist group", the Spanish defence ministry said.
Police near Falluja said guerrillas in a passing car lobbed a grenade and opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles at a checkpoint on the highway to the town of Ramadi.
Two policemen and a civilian were killed in the attack, and five police were wounded.
A US military spokeswoman in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit said mortars and rockets had been fired at an American base near Baquba, 65 kilometres north of Baghdad, last night.
The deaths brought to 349 the number of US soldiers killed in action in Iraq since Washington launched a war in March to topple Saddam. Including non-combat deaths, the toll is 505.
Military commanders in Iraq say the number of attacks on their forces has dropped following the capture of Saddam last month. But security in Iraq remains precarious.