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BAGHDAD, Oct 23: Suicide bombers killed 20 men of Iraq's fledgling security forces near a US marine base west of Baghdad and at a checkpoint to the north on Saturday amid a spate of insurgent attacks across the country.
The surge in violence underlined the scale of the task facing the US military and Iraqi interim government, which have sworn to quell rebels before elections due in January.
Hospital officials said 16 Iraqi police were killed and up to 40 people wounded by the morning suicide bomb at an Iraqi police post near the marine base west of Baghdad.
Another suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi National Guards in the village of Ishaqi, near Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing four guards. Six guards were also wounded in the attack. Police said a policeman was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra town.
There was no let up in violence elsewhere across the Sunni Arab heartland of central Iraq.
Attackers killed two Turkish truck drivers and wounded two in a convoy attack near the northern city of Mosul, police said.
Six US soldiers were wounded when their armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb on a highway leading to Baghdad airport. Insurgents also fired two mortar rounds in central Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding one, witnesses said.
SHRINKING HAVEN: But the US military said it had captured a lieutenant of its top foe in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and five other suspects in an overnight raid on what it said was a hideout of the Jordanian militant's network in southern Falluja.
US forces earlier launched an air strike on the rebel-held militant stronghold, killing two people and wounding three.
US troops did not name the man or give his nationality, but said he had once been viewed as a minor Zarqawi operative.
"However, due to a surge in the number of Zarqawi associates who have been captured or killed by (US) strikes and other operations, the member had moved up to take a critical position as a Zarqawi senior leader," the statement said.
The military said Falluja is a shrinking haven for Zarqawi's group, blamed for some of Iraq's bloodiest violence.
"Zarqawi followers are starting to move to outlying areas of Falluja in a continuing attempt to hide amidst the civilian population of Falluja due to precision strikes against Zarqawi hideouts and fighting positions," it said.
Residents of Falluja, about 50km west of Baghdad, deny knowledge of Zarqawi's network and say frequent US air strikes inflict a heavy toll on civilians.-Reuters
