BAGHDAD, April 9: US forces killed eight suspected insurgents in a raid west of Baghdad on Sunday, while 10 Iraqis, including a soldier, were killed in shootings and bombings. US forces stormed an insurgent bomb-making facility early on Sunday near Hamaniyah, 22 kilometres west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

Five suspected rebels were killed in an ensuing firefight, while three more were killed when the US ground commander called in “air support” to target their machine-gun fire, the statement read.

Numerous weapons, ammunition, and falsified documents were found in the targeted safe house, it added.

In other violence, a civilian was killed and six others wounded when a minibus packed with explosives blew up near Mustansriyah University in eastern Baghdad, police said.

One Iraqi bystander was killed and three wounded, including two policemen, when a roadside bomb exploded as a police patrol passed by in eastern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

A civilian was killed in a similar roadside blast against a police patrol in western Baghdad which also left two policemen wounded.

In Mahmudiyah, 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, one civilian was killed and another wounded by a roadside bombing on the town’s main route.

A series of attacks were also reported in and around the southern city of Basra on Sunday.

Two people, one of them a university student, were shot dead by gunmen in the city, while policemen rescued two Iraqi hostages.

A police officer from Basra was gunned down by armed men, while the village leader of Qurna, 70 kilometres north of Basra, and his wife were shot dead when they were in their car waiting at a gas station, police said.

The body of a civilian kidnapped on Saturday night was also found in Basra.

Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier while on way to his base in Dhuluiyah, 70 kilometres north of Baghdad, police said.

Police also found the body of an Egyptian citizen holding Iraqi nationality. The man had been shot to death.

Six other bullet-riddled bodies were recovered on Sunday across Iraq, police added.—AFP