The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Baghdad

US.forces backed by aircraft killed 25 suspected insurgents in operations targeting al Qaeda near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

It was the latest in a series of operations mounted against al Qaeda, which U.S. commanders say has been seriously weakened since the launch of a U.S. counter-insurgency strategy to deny the militants safe haven in provinces around Baghdad.

Meanwhile: A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police patrol Thursday in northern Iraq, killing six people and wounding more than 20 - many of them children walking to school, police said.

The explosion happened around 8 a.m. in Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city 180 miles north of Baghdad, said police Brig. Sarhad Qadir.

The city has seen a rise in violence in recent months, ahead of a planned census and referendum to determine the future of the city - whether it will join the semi-autonomous Kurdish region on its border, or remain under Baghdad's control.

The bomber's apparent target was the six-car convoy of a senior Kurdish police officer, Brig. Gen. Khattab Omar, who heads the city police department's quick response force, Qadir said.

North of the capital, in the ethnically and religiously mixed oil-producing city of Kirkuk, a car bomb targeting the convoy of a police colonel killed six people, including one policeman, police said. They said 17 people were wounded.