US marines say they have killed five fighters and captured 10 others in a city west of Baghdad as US forces there step up their campaign to suppress deadly roadside bombs.

The US military said in a statement on Tuesday that the five fighters died on Monday in Ramadi, 115km west of Baghdad, in a series of shootings that began when marines discovered them trying to plant bombs in a hole used in the past to conceal explosives.

The incident occurred one day after army snipers killed eight people who were also trying to conceal explosives in Ramadi, capital of Iraq's most volatile province, al-Anbar, the US military added.

In other news, a senior member of the Iraqi police in Basra, Colonel Mahmud Qassim, was killed on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy south of the city, police said.

Another police officer died in the attack.

Police officer killed

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and wounded three others on Tuesday near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said.

The same day Iraqi police found six handcuffed corpses in a water-treatment plant, police said.

One civilian was killed when fighters opened fire in the notorious al-Dura district in the south of the capital.

A car bomb exploded near Mustansiriyah University, killing one person and injuring another. 

An Iraqi police officer, holding the rank of brigadier, has been killed and four of his guards injured in an explosion hitting their patrol in Abu al-Khusaib area.

On Monday evening, four US soldiers died in a car bombing in southwestern Baghdad, the US military said.

A civilian translator was also killed in the attack.

Few details

The US military released few details about the deaths of the four Americans and their translator in the car bombing.

They were members of the US army's Task Force Baghdad and were killed at about 5pm on Monday, the military said.

Their deaths brought to at least 2054 the number of US military personnel who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Roadside bombs have become the major killer of US forces in Iraq, accounting for most of the 96 deaths among US service members in Baghdad last month.

Saddam trial defence lawyer shot dead

A lawyer working for the defence team in the Saddam Hussein trial and a journalist working for a northern Mosul weekly have been shot dead in Iraq.

Lawyer Adel Mohammed Abbas was killed and his colleague Tamer Hammud Hadi was wounded in the shooting on Tuesday in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. 

Lawyer Tamer Hammud Hadi was working for Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, one of the co-defendants of ousted president Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein is on trial over the alleged massacre of more than 140 Shia civilians from the town of Dujail during his time as president. 

Barzan, a Saddam half-brother, is defending charges that he shared responsibility for the 1982 massacre.

Mukhabarat chief

Barzan once headed the feared Mukhabarat intelligence service.

At 1.30pm (1030 GMT) on Tuesday "armed gunmen fired upon Tamer Hammud Hadi and his colleague Adel Mohammed Abbas" in the Adl neighbourhood of Baghdad, the source said.

Hadi was taken to a north Baghdad hospital.

The trial of Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants opened on 19 October.

All pleaded not guilty. If convicted they could be executed.

Detained on 16 April 2003, Barzan was number 52 on the wanted list issued by US commanders after their March 2003 invasion.

He remained one of Saddam's most trusted aides and managed his personal fortune until 1995. He is also believed to have coordinated covert purchases in Europe for Baghdad's prized weapons programmes.

Journalist killed

In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi journalist working for a local weekly publication was shot dead, police said on Tuesday.

Ahmed Hussein Malek, who worked for the Tall Afar Today, was on Monday leaving an internet cafe in Mosul "when men aboard a car opened fire, killing him on the spot", said Sergeant Omar Muzahem.

Malek was married and had a daughter, a close friend said.

Tall Afar Today is an independent publication that covers events in the largely Sunni region, a stronghold of anti-US fighting.

On 20 October, a top official with the Union of Iraqi Journalists, Mohammed Harun Hassen, was shot dead by unknown men while driving in his car in downtown Baghdad.

According to the rights group Reporters Without Borders, at least 73 journalists and media assistants - overwhelmingly Iraqis - have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

Australian Army Warrant Officer examines U.S. Marine after his vehicle hit a mine in the restive Anbar province, at the U.S. Air Force hospital in Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Nov. 7, 2005. (AP)