An Iraqi police colonel and his driver have been killed while driving on a highway near Baquba, north of Baghdad, police sources said.

The attack on Thursday, between Baquba and Kanaan, some 50km north of the capital, was carried out by unidentified armed men in a car.

In Baghdad the owner of a tile-making factory and two of his sons were shot dead overnight at their home by an armed group posing as policemen, an Interior Ministry official said.

His wife was wounded and another son kidnapped in the attack in the New Baghdad district, in the southeast of town.

Also in Baghdad, an unidentified armed group fire on a pickup truck carrying six security guards from the Ministry of Immigration, killing four and wounding two, an Interior Ministry official said. The armed group escaped.

Roadside bomb

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb hit a US patrol of Humvees in southern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding six, an official said.

The explosion occurred at 10.30pm (1830 GMT) on Wednesday in the Dora section of Baghdad, said Sergeant 1st Class David Abrams of the US Army.

The residential area of the capital has been the site of many attacks by fighters against American forces and Iraqi police.

Abrams said he could not immediately identify the victims of the attack or their unit.

Elsewhere, a bomb damaged an oil pipeline near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, sending plumes of black smoke and fire up into the air, officials said on Thursday.

The bomb, which exploded late on Wednesday, was placed beneath the aboveground pipeline, which connects the Bay Hassan oil fields with Kirkuk in northern Iraq, said police Brigadier Sarhad Qadir.

Officials in Iraq's Northern Oil Company said the heavily damaged pipeline would be repaired within five days.

Basra officials to boycott UK troops

Local authorities in Iraq's southern city of Basra have said they will refuse to engage with British troops following a British raid on a police station this week.

"All regular meetings between the governorate and British troops have been cancelled and we will not allow British soldiers into the governorate building or any other public office in Basra," Nadim al-Jaabari, spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP on Thursday.

The head of the 41-member provincial council, Mohammed Saadun al-Abidi, confirmed the decision to refuse all contacts with British forces which are responsible for security in the region.

"Yesterday, the provincial council voted in session to boycott British troops and we are demanding that they return the two British soldiers to Iraqi custody," Abidi said.

Protests
Relations took a turn for the worse on Monday after British forces forcibly rescued two undercover soldiers who had been detained by Iraqi police.

"We are aware of reports of a boycott, but we are waiting until we can establish that is the case and come up with a plan," British army spokesman Major Steve Melbourne said.

British forces rescued the two soldiers after raiding a police station where they were initially detained, and then a nearby house where they were reportedly moved.

According to Iraqi MP Ali Dabagh, the militiamen from the outlawed Madhi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr wanted the soldiers as hostages to exchange for two of their leaders arrested on Sunday by British forces.

Investigation

Monday's showdown between Iraqi police and British soldiers also sparked protests when several hundred demonstrators attacked British forces besieging the police station in Basra.

Three British soldiers were slightly injured when demonstrators petrol-bombed their armoured vehicle while several Iraqis were also injured in the riot, according to British and Iraqi authorities.

"We are conducting normal patrols. Everything is back to normal as can be," Melbourne said.

Iraqi and British authorities will jointly investigate Monday's incidents, he added.

PHOTO CAPTION

A British soldier jumps from a burning tank which was set ablaze after a shooting incident in the southern Iraqi city of Basra September 19, 2005. (REUTERS)