SAMARRA, March 7: Twenty-seven people were killed in a series of attacks on Monday. The worst bloodshed occurred in Balad, north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at the home of an Iraqi army officer , killing 15 people, including at least two soldiers, and wounding 23, police said.

In recent days, Iraqi commandos and US troops have stepped up operations in the area, a known stronghold of Sunni insurgents, in search of suspects who might lead them to the country's most wanted man, Al-Qaeda front man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Jordanian-born militant is blamed for most of the deadliest bombings since the 2003 US-led invasion, as well as executions of foreign hostages.

His group was quick to take credit for a separate attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint further south in Al-Muradiyah, near Baquba, that left five soldiers and one assailant dead. The US military said the operation involved "20 terrorists" aboard five vehicles.

In Baquba itself four people were killed, including two policemen, when a car bomb detonated as officers passed on their way to the checkpoint attack, police said. Another 11 people were wounded.

Meanwhile, an interpreter was killed in Tuz, north of Baghdad, and a rebel was killed by the US army in an operation in Mosul. Iraq's budding security forces face relentless attacks from insurgents determined to derail US plans to hand over security responsibility and pave the way for a withdrawal of foreign troops two years after the invasion. A Jordanian businessman was kidnapped on Friday in Baghdad, his brother in Amman said, adding that his captors have demanded a 250,000-dollar ransom.

ITALIAN ALLEGATIONS: Washington characterised as "absurd" allegations by Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena, freed after a month in captivity in Iraq, that US soldiers deliberately fired at her convoy killing an Italian intelligence officer escorting her.