BAGHDAD, Dec 30: Fifteen Iraqis were killed in attacks across the country on Thursday as plans were unveiled to deploy 100,000 Iraqi soldiers to stave off a bloodbath on election day exactly a month from now.

The deadly violence came one day after battles between US troops and guerillas in the northern city of Mosul left at least 26 dead, including a US soldier, and 30 people were killed when a booby-trapped house in Baghdad exploded.

The grim business of hostage-taking again surfaced, with two Lebanese businessmen kidnapped in an upmarket neighbourhood of Baghdad late on Wednesday. And the Iraqi government announced that a senior aide to the country's most wanted man, Abu Musab al Zarqawi - whose militants are behind many deadly attacks and killings of hostages - was captured recently in Baghdad.

A similar arrest was made in Mosul. On Wednesday guerillas detonated car bombs against a US patrol and attacked a combat outpost in Mosul, triggering air strikes and clashes that left at least 25 guerillas dead, the US military said.

A US soldier died of wounds suffered in one of the car bombings, the military announced. Across the country, at least 15 Iraqis have been killed in various attacks by guerillas since Wednesday night, security officials said.

Three border policemen were gunned down in Baquba, north of Baghdad, while on leave, and the son of local police chief was kidnapped. In the capital, an Iraqi army officer was killed while strolling in the street.

Four civilians were killed in an ambush at Shorgat, north of the capital, while further north two civilians were killed and four hurt when a bomb exploded near their car as it followed a national guard convoy.

Two more Iraqis died and four were wounded when they tried to break through a national guard roadblock in Syniya, a woman was killed and three people wounded by a roadside bomb on the road between Baghdad and Balad and, in Samarra, a national guard was died and four others were wounded in an ambush.

The violence raised to well over 100 the death toll for the past 48 hours. Despite the volatile security situation, US President George Bush insisted elections must go ahead as planned on Jan 30, even as a militant group reiterated to sabotage the poll with deadly violence.

ELECTION THREAT: An Al Qaeda-linked group, Ansar al Sunna, which claimed responsibility for last week's attack against US troops in Mosul, renewed a threat to attack polling stations during the election, in a statement on its website.