BAGHDAD, Dec 2: A roadside explosion killed 10 US Marines and wounded 11 outside the troubled Iraqi city of Fallujah, the US military said on Friday as they launched a new operation in the nearby city of Ramadi.

The deadly attack against a foot patrol occurred on Thursday and was the bloodiest single attack on US military since August, a US military statement said.

The violence coincided with the issue of a report by a Washington-based research group that suggested the insurgency was thriving and could get even stronger.

The Marine patrol ‘was attacked with an IED (improvised explosive device) fashioned from several large artillery shells,’ the military said.

The deaths brought the US military toll in Iraq to 2,125 soldiers and defence personnel killed since the start of the US-led war in 2003, according to Pentagon figures.

The Fallujah blast came shortly after US and Iraqi forces launched a joint operation in nearby Ramadi where militants had staged a symbolic attack a day earlier.

Approximately 200 Iraqi soldiers and 300 Marines were taking part in Operation Shank, the fifth operation over the last few weeks targeting insurgents in the area around Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

The offensive was issued after residents of Ramadi, the capital of the restive province of Al-Anbar, reported on Thursday a sudden insurgent presence on the streets.

Rebels fired a rocket at a US-Iraqi checkpoint, and dozens of fighters briefly roamed unchecked and put up Al Qaeda posters.

Meanwhile, a policeman and his brother were gunned down in a drive by shooting in the northern town of Mosul, while in the northern oil-hub of Kirkuk, an army officer and the bodyguard of a government official were killed, police said.

On Thursday night, a man was killed and his brother wounded by gunmen dressed as Iraqi soldiers in Baquba. —AFP