Two US soldiers were killed in separate gun and mortar attacks south of Baghdad, and a third died in a road accident, the US military said Saturday. One soldier died at 3 pm (1100 GMT) Friday of his wounds from a mortar attack on his unit and a second was shot dead in a sniper ambush. Another US soldier has died after being wounded in a bomb attack on a convoy north of Baghdad, the US military said Saturday. The soldier died late Friday following the attack earlier in the day outside al-Tarmya, near this town some 75 kilometres (45 miles) north of Baghdad. "A 13th Corps Support Command soldier died around 8:00 pm (1600 GMT) May 14 from wounds received in combat earlier that day," the military said in a statement. A US marine was also killed during fighting in the restive western Al Anbar province west of Baghdad, the coalition said in a statement late Friday. The statement said the marine was killed in action on Thursday while "conducting security and stability operations," but gave no more details. Another soldier died of "natural causes" on Friday after being found unconscious at the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the military said. The latest death took the US military combat and accident death toll to 781 since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year, according to a tally based on Pentagon figures. Meanwhile, British troops on Friday killed 16 Iraqis who tried to ambush them outside the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday. Two British soldiers were wounded in the attack, when Iraqi gunmen fired on a British patrol between Basra and the city of al-Amarah, a ministry spokesman said. "A two-vehicle patrol was fired on in the Maysan province south of al-Amarah and the patrol returned fire. As it was driving on and leaving the area it was fired on again twice more," he said. Reinforcements were called in, and "we returned a robust response with those reinforcements", he added. "We sent a clear sign that we are not going to tolerate hostile action against our people by a minority of militia forces who are intent on causing harm and preventing the progress of what we are doing," said the spokesman. In a separate incident, two British soldiers were wounded in fighting in the same region Friday against Iraqi militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades, the ministry said. Four Iraqis were killed and 17 others wounded in an insurgent attack on a recruiting centre for the new Iraqi army Saturday in the northern city of Mosul, police said. "The recruiting centre was targeted at about 10:20 am (0620 GMT) by a projectile which killed four and wounded 17 others," said police Captain Mezahem Maher Sami. Three civilians were killed and seven others wounded in fighting early Saturday between Shiite militiamen and the US-trained paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC), hospital sources said. An ICDC patrol came under attack 50 metres (yards) from the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, among the most revered sites for Shiite Muslims in the world, in the centre of Karbala, said witness Hassan Ghanem. Ghanem said he saw a fighter from Moqtada Sadr's private Mehdi Army beat an ICDC officer. Police and medical sources were unable to confirm the report. Doctor Ali Ardawi said that three dead bodies and seven wounded people had been admitted to Karbala hospital. "All the victims were civilians," he said. Shortly after the clashes, US warplanes flew low over Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad. A representative of Iraqi Shiites', Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on local people to find a "peaceful solution" to the violence that has dragged on for more than a month. "I call on residents to intervene with both parties in the conflict to find a peaceful solution," said Sheikh Abdel Mehdi Karabalai. Late Friday, coalition soldiers handed out pamphlets in Arabic urging the townsmen to help rid Karbala of Sadr's militiamen. **PHOTO CAPTION*** U.S. Marines in Nasar Wa Salam, Iraq, Saturday, May 15, 2004, as smoke rises in the distance from a mortar attack at a fuel depot in Abu Ghraib. (AP)