BAGHDAD, May 20: Roadside bombings killed seven US soldiers and an interpreter, the military said on Sunday, putting May on track to be one of the deadliest months for US forces in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

A single bomb in west Baghdad killed six soldiers and an interpreter as they were out on patrol on Saturday in search of weapons and bomb-making materials, the military said.

The seventh soldier was killed in the southern city of Diwaniyah, the scene of deadly fighting between rival Shiite factions on Saturday. Two soldiers were also wounded when the bomb tore through their vehicle.

In Diwaniyah, a truce between Shia factions restored an uneasy calm to the city after nine people were killed in Saturday's clashes.

But fighting erupted between militiamen and the security forces in the city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad and at least one person was killed, witnesses said.

Fifteen people were also wounded in Saturday's street battles in Diwaniyah, including three women and three children, health officials said.

City officials and three MPs loyal to Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr announced on Sunday that they had agreed a month-long truce. Another four people were killed in and around the capital on Sunday.

Two Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded when a car bomb exploded next to a petrol station not far from the interior ministry, security officials said.

Another person was killed and three wounded when three mortar rounds struck Saadun street, a major central thoroughfare.

Near the western city of Ramadi, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle, killing a policeman, the US military said.—AFP