Suicide bomber kills 12 in Iraq

A suicide car bomber ploughed into policemen waiting to collect their salaries at a police station west of Ramadi yesterday, killing 12 people in the latest insurgent attack on Iraq's beleaguered security forces.

At least 10 people were wounded in the blast, and 90 per cent of the casualties were policemen, said Nazar al-Hiti, a doctor in the town of Hit around 200 kilometres west of Baghdad, where the dead and wounded were taken.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded as a US patrol went past, killing two American soldiers and wounding three. Nine US soldiers were also wounded in a mortar attack south of Baghdad. At least 968 US troops have been killed in action in Iraq and 9,000 have been wounded, most of them seriously.

Insurgents trying to drive out US-led soldiers and topple the American-backed government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have repeatedly attacked Iraqi police and soldiers.

The US military has warned that violence will worsen in Iraq as elections scheduled for January 30 approach.

Leading Sunni Arab political parties want the elections postponed, saying their supporters will not be able to vote freely due to guerilla violence mainly in Sunni areas of Iraq.

Sunni Arabs make up only around 20 per cent of Iraq's population but dominated the ruling elite during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Several Sunni parties say they will boycott the elections unless the government agrees to postpone them.

But parties representing Iraq's 60-per cent Shi'ite majority, oppressed under Saddam, are demanding that the polls go ahead on time to cement their political dominance in the new Iraq.

Backed by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered religious leader, Shi'ite parties have refused to accept any delay, saying that would mean giving in to guerilla violence.

The government has called for major religious and political leaders to meet in Baghdad today in the hope of finding unity with just two months to go before the poll. It was not immediately clear who would attend the meeting.

The US military has said it will move into rebel-held areas by the end of the year to pacify them ahead of the elections. Earlier this month, a major US offensive crushed guerillas in the insurgent bastion of Falluja, west of Baghdad.

US Marines, British troops and Iraqi forces have also launched an operation to hunt down insurgents and criminals in a cluster of lawless towns on the Euphrates just south of Baghdad.