Armed men in two cars have attacked a minibus taking workers to a US base in Iraq, killing 13 people.

The minibus driver and nine workers from the base were killed in Tuesday's attack in Baquba, just north of the capital, after the armed men blocked the bus and opened fire.

Three other civilians died when the bus careered into their car, a Baquba police source said.

Bodies had been taken to two hospitals in Baquba and nearby Khalis.

Kirkuk killings

Also on Tuesday, two people were killed and four others wounded after an Iraqi police patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk.

One of the dead was a policeman, while the other was a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the political party of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.

"The IED (improvised explosive device) was targeted at a passing police patrol in which one policeman was killed and one wounded," police Colonel Adel Zaein al-Abidin said.

The incident occurred at the al-Wasiti neighbourhood near central Kirkuk at 8.30am (0430 GMT), he added.

"The other person who died was from the PUK," the colonel added. The three other wounded were civilians.

Iraq is reeling under a blitz of attacks since Friday in which scores have perished and been wounded.

The deadliest attack came in the southern Iraqi town of al-Musayyib on Saturday evening when a bomber blew up a gas tanker, killing 83 people and wounding 151.

PHOTO CAPTION

A British soldier stands on an armoured vehicle during sunrise at a military camp in the southern Iraq city of Basra May 19, 2005. (Reuters)