Saturday 05 February 2005, 18:26 Makka Time, 15:26 GMT
Four Iraqi soldiers died close to the city of Basra, when a motorcycle bomb exploded, behind the al-Risala Hospital, on Saturday.
A captain of the Iraqi forces said: "The booby-trapped motorbike exploded as the patrol passed by. Four soldiers were killed and their vehicle destroyed."
According to several sources two children were killed due to a landmine explosion in the district of Samarra, north of Baghdad, when later two others Iraqi soldiers were killed as a roadside bomb exploded.
Police Lieutenant Husain Abbas said that a civillian and a policemen died during a gunbattle between Iraqi security forces and insurgents in the centre of Samarra.
Another soldier was killed and four civillians wounded close to Dhuluiya.
Il Romanaccio at 4:40 PM