One of Iraq's top Shia leaders has called for a greater security role for the armed wing of his party, the Badr Organisation.

"In gratitude to the efforts, sacrifices and heroic positions of our brothers and brave sons from the Badr Organisation
... we must give them the priority in bearing administrative and government responsibilities especially in the security field," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim told a conference held in Baghdad on Wednesday to honour Badr.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim leads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a key member of the Shia-dominated government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The Shiite Badr Organisation replaced the Badr Brigade, which was formed by the former boss of SCIRI and al-Hakim's brother Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim in the 1980s to fight Saddam Hussein with backing and funding from Iran.

Meanwhile, unidentified attackers ambushed the motorcade of a Kurdish parliamentarian on the constitutional committee, killing two of his bodyguards in Baghdad.

Security officials said two carloads of armed men fired on a vehicle carrying Industry Ministry officials Zaki Jawad and Muhammed Haider, killing both.

An Iraqi translator working for the US military was slain north of the capital. Fighters Mustafa Ashraf as he was driving between the towns of Khalis and Baquba, 60km northeast of Baghdad.

Also in Baquba, a car bomb exploded at 10.15am (0615 GMT) near a petrol station where cars were waiting for fuel, killing two civilians and destroying five vehicles.

Three US soldiers were killed in two attacks in Iraq late on Tuesday.

The US military said in a statement on Wednesday that a mortar attack on a base at Tikrit killed two soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division.

A soldier from the 1st Corps Support Command was killed when a roadside bomb blasted his vehicle just north of Baghdad, the statement added.

The deaths take to 1679 the number of US troops killed since the March 2003 invasion and to more than 870 people in total, including US military personnel, since Iraq's new government was announced on 28 April.

PHOTO CAPTION

A masked man walks by a truck destroyed in attack in Habaniyah, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Baghdad, a town located between the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi, Tuesday June 6, 2005. (AP)