The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Baghdad

A US air strike Tuesday killed 10 people in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said, as the American military announced the deaths of five troops and a female suicide bomber slaughtered six Iraqis north of the capital.

The US military initially denied there had been an air strike but later reported an "air weapons team engagement" in Sadr City, an east Baghdad Shiite bastion where militiamen are fighting street battles with Iraqi and US forces.

Iraqi security officials said 10 people were killed and 17 hurt in the air strike, which they said took place around 7.00 pm (1600 GMT) in the embattled district's Al-Nasr neighbourhood.

US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover confirmed the air strike.

"The Hellfire missile struck a car being used to transport rockets and then the same air weapons team (AWT) used 30mm to destroy a rocket rail in an open field," Stover said, adding that his was a preliminary report. He gave no casualty figures.

Meanwhile, A bomb-rigged truck exploded at a checkpoint Tuesday near the western city of Ramadi, killing two U.S. Marines and wounding three others in an apparent strike by al-Qaida in Iraq in one of its former strongholds.

At least one civilian also died and two dozen were injured in the blast, the latest in a string of recent strikes in areas where local Sunnis have joined U.S. forces to battle al-Qaida.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, which was once held by insurgents. But it has been relatively peaceful since local Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with the U.S. military against the terror movement. Iraqi police said the suicide attacker drove a small water tanker packed with explosives to the checkpoint and detonated them when he reached the guards.