Friday, January 28 2005 10:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: At least 30 people were killed in Iraq yesterday (Jan 27, 2005) as insurgents intensified attacks on Iraqi and US targets, and election workers backed by troops started distributing ballot boxes for the vote in three days' time.

New attacks followed the deaths of 31 US military personnel in a helicopter crash in western Iraq on Wednesday (Jan 26, 2005), while six other US soldiers died elsewhere in the deadliest day for American forces since the March 2003 invasion.

In the deadliest attack, a car driven by a suicide bomber rammed an Iraqi Army patrol in Samarra, a mainly Sunni Arab city north of Baghdad where US and Iraqi forces launched a massive operation last October to wrest control from insurgents before the vote.

As security forces sealed off the sector to evacuate victims, a second car burst onto the scene from the direction of a nearby hospital. Eight soldiers and three civilians were killed, police said.

In Baquba, north of the capital, a car bomb attack on a provincial Government headquarters killed five people.

"A peace conference gathering former Baathists, tribal leaders, clerics and political officials, was being held in the building at the time of the attack," said police lieutenant colonel Mohammed Mahmud.

South of Baghdad, in the so-called triangle of death, a homemade bomb killed five Iraqis and wounded 15 on the road between Mahmudiyah and Latifiyah. A US marine was also killed.

Another six people were killed in clashes between Iraqi and US troops and insurgents in Samarra and in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold west of the capital.