A car bomb has exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding five other people, police said.

The attack occurred at about 9.45am (0545 GMT) in Karada, a commercial area of the capital, said police Major Abbas Mohammed.

Three of the wounded were soldiers, police said.

Soldiers at the checkpoint were waving at the driver, trying to get him to stop, when the explosion occurred, smashing windows in nearby buildings and damaging cement walls surrounding some, Mohammed said. Six parked cars were damaged, including one that caught fire

Iraqi police and the army sealed off the area.

Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb killed a US Army soldier whose convoy was patrolling south-eastern Baghdad on Friday night, US military sources said.

Armed men also killed a member of the commission charged with ensuring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime are banned from the Iraqi government, police said.

Thirteen commission members have been killed since it was created two years ago.

Ramadi fighting

Overnight, police and hospital officials reported heavy fighting in the Euphrates River city of Ramadi.

The US military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in and around the city, the scene of nearly one-quarter of 29 American deaths this month.

At least 1913 US service members have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

The US military declined to say if it was conducting a large offensive against Ramadi, but police and residents have reported heavy fighting there during the past week.

"There are 30 to 40 battalion-level operations going on across Iraq on any given day," said Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Boylan, a US military spokesman in Baghdad.

"What you are seeing is the pattern of operations that we have been conducting almost every day here."

Iraqi Judge Issues Arrest Warrants for British Soldiers

An Iraqi judge has issued arrest warrants for two British undercover soldiers who have been freed after a controversial British raid in the city of Basra.

Judge Raghib Hasan accused the men of killing an Iraqi policeman and wounding another, carrying unlicensed weapons and holding false identification, said Qasim al-Sabti, the head of the lawyers syndicate in the southern city, on Saturday.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Saturday the warrants had no legal basis.

"All British troops in Iraq come under the jurisdiction of Britain," a defence spokesman said in London.

The whereabouts of the two soldiers was not clear.

Basra authorities had said British troops killed two Iraqi policemen during the raid.

British forces mounted a bid to free the two soldiers on Monday, by surrounding the police station where they were being held with several tanks and armoured vehicles.

But a crowd quickly gathered, angered by the death of the Iraqi policeman.

Five Iraqi civilians were killed and three British soldiers were wounded as the crowd threw petrol-bombs at armoured vehicles.

Breakout

Later, British forces returned and armoured vehicles flattened cars parked nearby as they broke down the walls of the jail.

Iraqi authorities said the jail and the police station were demolished.

The two soldiers were later freed from a private house nearby, where British military authorities believed they were being held by a local militia.

Monday's flare-up has harmed the relationship British forces were able to build with local Iraqis in and around Basra, a relatively stable city compared with other parts of Iraq.

Officials said the Basra's governing council stopped all cooperation with the British until they apologise, guarantee that similar actions are not taken again and provide compensation for the damage inflicted during the operation.

Investigation

An investigation into the events leading up to the rescue is under way by Iraqi authorities and the British military.

"We will continue to work closely with the Iraqis and the inquiry which the Iraq government has begun into the events of Monday," the British defence spokesman said.

Britain's secretary of defence said he stood by the actions of the forces on the ground.

"They did what they judged was appropriate at the time and I commend them for the swift and decisive action in very difficult circumstances," John Reid said

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi police stand guard as thousands of people march in support of the new constitution in the southern Iraq city of Basra September 24, 2005. (REUTERS)