36 Iraqis killed in blasts

The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad injured at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The attacks occurred in a mixed Sunni and Shia neighbourhood.

In separate attacks, a bomb exploded in a central Baghdad market, killing four people and wounding 15 others, police said. Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighbourhood of the capital, killing four policemen and injuring 12 people.

In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, another roadside bomb killed three civilians including an 8-year-old girl and wounded six other people, police said.

The US military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the US military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The milestone came with the deaths of the three soldiers Monday and three more Tuesday in roadside bomb attacks near Baghdad, the military said.

President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offence against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaeda and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said.

Democratic leaders have said the Bush administration has gotten the US bogged down in Iraq when there was no evidence of links to the Sept 11 attacks, detracting from efforts against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

The AP count of those killed includes at least seven military civilians. Prior to the deaths announced Tuesday, the AP count was 15 higher than the Defence Department's tally, last updated Friday. At least 2,377 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

British soldiers were on alert for reprisals a day after they raided a police station in the southern city of Basra, killing seven gunmen in an effort to stop renegade Iraqi officers from executing their prisoners.