Twenty Iraqis have been killed and 22 injured after US helicopters and heavy artillery bombed houses in al-Rummana village north of al-Qaim city.

Seven children, six women and three old men were among the dead, witnesses said, while the injured included 13 children, seven women and two old men.

The witnesses added that the shelling started after US forces, who landed near al-Qaim on Monday night, came under several attacks.

Early reports indicated one house was completely destroyed and three others partially damaged in the bombing, Aljazeera learned.

On Monday, five car bombs hit US military targets in the western Iraqi city of al-Qaim near the border with Syria, wounding at least two US soldiers.

Iraqi journalist Ahmed Khalid told Aljazeera that two of Monday's attacks were simultaneous. Three bombs hit a building used as a US military headquarters, while a fourth targeted a US military convoy.

Clashes erupted later between fighters and US troops in the city, damaging a number of houses, the journalist said.

However, no civilians were injured in those clashes as they had fled.

A spokesperson for the US marines said on Monday three of their soldiers were wounded in the attack, which occurred outside Camp Gannon, a base in al-Qaim, about 300km west of Baghdad in al-Anbar province.

Kirkuk attack

Late on Monday, armed men opened fire on a police patrol in the northeastern Iraq city of Kirkuk, injuring two members of the security service, police Brigadier Sarhat Kadier said.

Attackers also placed a bomb in the undercarriage of a doctor's car, but the device exploded as the physician entered a Kirkuk store to buy bread, sparing him but wounding two nearby civilians, Kadir said.

It was not known why attackers targeted the doctor.

Also on Monday, the US embassy in Iraq announced that an American contractor working on a reconstruction project had been captured.

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