Guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside a police station in a town south of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least five people in the latest attack targeting Iraq’s fledgling security forces.

Police backed by US marines also battled militiamen loyal to rebel Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in fierce clashes in the holy city of Najaf that began before dawn. Each side accused the other of starting the violence.

The car bomb attack in Mahawil, about 75 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, wounded at least 24 people, Iraq’s health ministry said. It said the casualty toll was preliminary and could rise.

Police and Iraqi National Guardsmen have been frequent targets of bomb attacks by guerrillas opposed to the US-backed government and the presence of US-led troops in Iraq.

On Wednesday, guerrillas fought street battles with police in the northern city of Mosul after launching attacks on a police station, a power plant and a hospital.

The US military said in a statement eight insurgents were killed during about three hours of clashes, but more than 14 civilians had also been killed and 31 wounded.

Last Sunday, a suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Mosul killed five people.

<B>Najaf fighting</B>

In Najaf, residents said US marines and Iraqi police backed by helicopters were fighting members of Sadr’s Mehdi Army in fierce clashes that followed an overnight attack on police.

The US military statement said the police station was attacked by “a significant number of aggressors” believed to be members of the militia.

The statement said the attackers used heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms in an assault on the police station around 3 a.m. (2300 GMT Wednesday).

“Iraqi national guardsmen quickly reinforced Iraqi police, and the two units successfully defended the station from the attackers. Upon arrival of the marines, Mehdi Army members withdrew into the city’s exclusion zone”, the military said.

“The attack is an overt violation of the ceasefire agreement reached in June between coalition forces and Moqtada Sadr.”

But Sheikh Mahmoud al-Sudani, a spokesman for Sadr, said US forces and Iraqi police had attacked first, and that the cleric had ordered his militiamen not to fight back.

Sadr launched an uprising against US-led forces in April, and hundreds were killed in weeks of fighting in Shi’ite areas of Iraq. As part of the truce agreed in June, US troops said they would not enter parts of Najaf, home to the holiest shrines in Shi’ite Islam.

<B>Hostage stalemate </B>

An arrest warrant has been issued for Sadr in connection with the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last year. But during truce negotiations with Sadr earlier this year, Iraqi officials said they would not seek his arrest.

There was no new word on the fate of three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian held by kidnappers who have threatened to behead them one by one. The kidnappers want the Kuwaiti firm that employs the men to stop doing business in Iraq and to pay compensation to the victims of US strikes in Falluja.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, which employs the men, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on the kidnappers to resume talks with tribal leader Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaymi, who has been acting as a mediator.

The talks stalled after the guerrillas accused the firm of not taking them seriously.

Earlier this week four Jordanians and two Turks being held hostage in Iraq were freed. A local tribal chief led a raid to free the Jordanians in the city of Falluja, and the captors of the two Turks said they were being released.

Scores of hostages from two dozen countries have been seized in the last four months. Most have been freed but at least nine have been killed, often by beheading.

<B>Andrew Marshall</B>