01 February 2004	Sunday	09 Zilhaj 1424

BAGHDAD, Jan 31: Three US soldiers and 10 Iraqis were killed in three attacks in northern Iraq on Saturday, most of them in a car bombing in Mosul that left part of a police station a smouldering ruin.

The American soldiers were travelling in a convoy that was attacked by a home-made bomb some 45 kilometres southwest of the oil centre of Kirkuk, a US military spokesman said.

The deaths pushed to 249 the number of US combat fatalities in Iraq since President George Bush declared an end to major hostilities on May 1.

In Mosul, a powerful suicide car bomb tore the front off a police station, killing nine people and wounding 45.

"Nine people were killed, including two policemen and seven civilians, and 45 wounded," said the head of the emergency room at a Mosul hospital.

He said four of the wounded, including some policemen, were in a serious condition.

Witness Mohammad Abdel Karim, 39, who works in the shop opposite the police station, said "an Opel sped up, got past the checkpoint and the driver blew up his car. There was an enormous explosion".

A chunk of the front of the police station was engulfed in flames and two rooms on the ground floor totally destroyed.

Cement blocks placed to protect the police station crashed onto a car.

An Iraqi Turkmen party official was also shot dead and another wounded in an attack near Kirkuk.

Mahdi Hussein Turkmani was killed and Hussein Abbas wounded in the mostly Turkmen town of Taza, 15 kilometres south of Kirkuk.

The two men were identified as senior members of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, a group opposed to Kurds' demand for a federated state in northern Iraq.

Saturday's deadly violence followed Friday night's grenade attack on the Dutch embassy in Baghdad.

Dutch officials said flames engulfed the building, part of which was badly damaged by the attack, which occurred when it was unoccupied.

Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman Martine de Haan said the attack was a deliberate strike against her country.

"The Netherlands was clearly targeted in this attack," she said in The Hague, which maintains some 1,200 troops in southern Iraq.

HOLIDAY PERIOD: Senior members of the US-led administration for Iraq have warned the country could face an increase in guerilla attacks during the Eid holiday period.

Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of US operations in Iraq, said preparations were being made to tackle any surge in unrest coinciding with Eid-ul-Azha.

In October, a wave of carnage in Baghdad greeted the start of Ramazan, with attacks on the Red Cross and Iraqi police leaving 42 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

Police in Kirkuk said on Saturday they were stepping up security after threats of a car bomb attack timed to coincide with the Eid holiday.

Gen Turhan Yussef said more than 5,000 police would be deployed to 15 polices stations across the region, after warnings of car bomb attacks against US patrols, security posts and mosques. -AFP