A roadside bomb that killed a US Marine in the restive town of Haditha on Saturday also killed 15 Iraqi civilians and led to intense clashes with insurgents, the US military said yesterday.

The powerful bomb detonated as a US military convoy was passing through the town, a militant stronghold on the Euphrates river about 220 km northwest of Baghdad. Immediately after the blast, gunmen opened fire on the convoy, the US military said in a statement. US and Iraqi soldiers returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another in a firefight.

A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha said bodies were left lying in the street for hours after the attack. He said the town had been virtually shut down for the past two days as US and Iraqi forces tried to impose order.

The casualties from Saturday?s blast raised the death toll from attacks across Iraq over the past three days to at least 166, as Sunni-led insurgents step up their battle against US and Iraqi forces ahead of parliamentary elections in December.

Haditha lies at the edge of Iraq?s western desert province of Anbar, the heartland of the insurgency, where US troops have launched a series of major offensives this year.