Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded in a bomb attack Thursday morning in Yathrib, 75km north of Baghdad.

"A man was arrested at the scene of the attack but was freed due to lack of evidence," said Captain Amjad Saad.

A soldier and a woman were killed in a bomb blast targeting an army convoy at Shorgat, 300km north of Baghdad, a police officer said, explaining that the woman was driving behind the convoy.

In a rare case of civilians fighting back, villagers killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the elections, police said yesterday.

The insurgents launched the raid Wednesday after earlier warning the inhabitants of Al-Mudhiryah, south

of Baghdad, against taking part in Sunday's vote, said a police captain.

Twelve Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush late Wednesday outside of Kirkuk, the worst single attack since Sunday's landmark vote.

The body of a driver working for the US military was found in the Tuz region, 200km northeast of Baghdad, police said.

An Iraqi employee on a US military base was gunned down and four of his colleagues wounded on their way to work Thursday in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, a medical source said.

Further north, a mortar attack on a US position Wednesday fell short and killed two civilians and wounded six in Tall Afar, the US military said.

"The insurgent minority attempted to fire mortar rounds at the Tall Afar Castle, instead missing and killing and wounding innocent Iraqis," a statement said.

Three other Iraqis were killed in separate attacks on Wednesday, a source at the interior ministry said.

One was a man who was working on a US military base in Baghdad and was shot dead by unknown gunmen.

A member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading religious Shiite party, was also gunned down in northern Baghdad.

And in the southern province of Muthanna, an Iraqi army captain was killed and two others soldiers wounded in clashes with gunmen, two of whom were captured.

Two US marines were killed in action Wednesday in the conflict-torn western province of Al-Anbar, the US military said Thursday.

"A marine assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action yesterday bringing to two the number of marines who died while conducting security and stability operations in the Al Anbar province," a statement said.

The deaths raised the overall toll for US troops killed in Iraq to 1,438 since the US-led invasion of March 2003, according to Pentagon figures.