Saturday, February 26 2005 10:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: A roadside bomb killed three US soldiers north of Baghdad yesterday (Feb 25, 2005) as 13 Iraqis died in other attacks and an American general ruled out any set date for US troops to hand security control to Iraqi forces.

Nine other US soldiers were wounded, five of them "very seriously", when Task Force Baghdad troops were hit by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol near the town of Tarmiya, the military said.

Coinciding with news of the attack, Iraq's Government said a senior aide to al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested, along with a man who had acted as his driver.

Security sources said that in addition to the attack on soldiers near Baghdad, a US marine, two members of the Iraqi security forces, seven civilians and four insurgents had been killed since Thursday (Feb 24, 2005).

The toll included two women and a child who were killed near the northern refinery town of Baiji when their car was blown up by a bomb that exploded just after a US Army convoy passed, police said.

In Baghdad, a civilian was killed when a roadside bomb exploded, the US Army said. Iraqi police and US soldiers cordoned the area as a crowd of onlookers gathered.

"A terrorist fired into the crowd... killing two other nationals and wounding two more," the Army said in a statement. An American soldier, also part of Task Force Baghdad, died separately of non-battle injuries, the military said.