At least fifteen members of the Iraqi National Guard have been killed southwest of Baghdad, Iraqi Ministry of Defense sources said.

The attack occurred on Friday near the town of Latifiya, about 50km southwest of Baghdad, police in the nearby town of Mahmudiya said.

The police said the guardsmen were being transported in a vehicle.

Some reports stated that the guardsmen were killed in a bomb explosion, but there was no official confirmation of that and the cause of death remains unclear, said Talib al-Janabi, an Iraq journalist speaking to Aljazeera. 

The driver of the vehicle survived the attack, al-Janabi reported.

Medical sources at al-Mahmudiya hospital said they have received five bodies of National Guard members.

Other attacks

Ten Iraqi truck drivers were killed near Hit, west of the city of Ramadi, Aljazeera reported on Saturday.

On Friday, a US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast north of Baghdad, raising to 1540 the number of US troops who have lost their lives in Iraq.

On Saturday, in the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb detonated near a police patrol, killing two police officers and injuring 13 civilians, Dr Baha al-Din al-Bakry of the Jumhuri hospital said.

Resistance fighters increasingly have targeted Iraqi security forces in recent months, as Iraqi police and soldiers have taken over more responsibility for national security from US-led forces.

Last month, more than 250 Iraqi police and soldiers were killed in attacks, while attacks against US-led forces have fallen by more than 20% over the past two months, according to the US military.

The area around Latifiya and Mahmudiya has been dubbed the Triangle of Death because of the frequency of attacks. Several foreigners have been taken hostage on the main road running through the area, near the Euphrates river.

While there is evidence of a tapering off in resistance activity since the election - attacks against US forces have fallen more than 20% in the past two months - there continue to be more than 40 attacks a day.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi Police officer looks over the scene of an overnight attack on a rest area used by Turkish truck drivers in Kirkuk, Iraq Friday, April 8, 2005. (AP)