BAQUBA, Nov 27: Seven people, including three bodyguards of deputy governor of Iraq's Diyala province and a US soldier, were killed in different incidents in Iraq on Saturday, officials said.

The three bodyguards were killed when clashes broke out between national guardsmen and guerillas at a checkpoint, the provincial police chief said.

"Fighters attacked an Iraqi national guard checkpoint in Khalas. In the ensuing gun battle, three bodyguards for the Diyala deputy governor were killed," General Walid al-Azzawi said.

Deputy Governor Rassam Abbas was not in the building at the time of the attack, he said, adding that several of the guerillas were later arrested.

On central al-Rasheed Street in Baghdad, two people were killed and 10 injured when an explosive device concealed in a pushcart went off near the central bank as two US Humvees drove through the area, Police Lt-Col Jamal Abbas Abd said.

The deceased were passers-by, while most of the injured were guards at the bank, he said.

Four stores adjacent to the bank were damaged, Col Abd said, adding the bomb was hidden underneath old electrical appliances in the cart.

Separately, a US military vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb on the highway near Baghdad International Airport, witnesses said.

In a statement later carried on a website (www.ansarnet.ws/vb), the group of Jordanian Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport road.

"A lion of the brigade of candidates for martyrdom this morning struck a convoy of the American occupation forces on the route to Baghdad airport," said the statement, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.

Another roadside bomb in the al-Saydiyah area in south Baghdad killed a bystander and injured a police captain, hospital sources said.

Meanwhile, a US soldier was killed in a bomb attack on a military vehicle north of Baghdad, the US military said.

"One 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed when anti-Iraqi forces attacked his combat patrol with an improvised explosive device," a statement said.

The attack took place near the town of Dhuluiyah, south of the city of Samarra.

Anti-Iraqi forces is the term used by the US military for guerillas.

BODIES FOUND: Meanwhile, American troops discovered 17 more bodies in Mosul, a US military spokesman said on Saturday, raising to more than 50 the number found in the city in the past two weeks.