KIRKUK: Five people were killed and 25 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a memorial service for a slain soldier yesterday, among 14 people killed in insurgent attacks around Iraq. The service in the northern oil city of Kirkuk was in memory of a Shiite army officer who had been stabbed to death on Tuesday, the Iraqi army's regional commander General Anwar Hamad Amin said. The dead included a brother of the dead officer while his father was among the wounded, Amin said.

The deaths brought the toll for the day to 14, including the security chief of Baghdad University, who was shot dead in the capital, security sources said.

Another 18 bodies were recovered, while the US military announced the loss of two servicemen.

Iraqi and US troops battled Shi'ite militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad yesterday, and witnesses and police said US helicopters bombed orchards to flush out gunmen hiding there.

Iraqi security officials said Iranian fighters had been captured in the fighting, in which a sniper shot dead the commander of an Iraqi quick reaction force and two of his men.

They did not say how the Iranians had been identified. A civilian was also killed and five people were wounded in the clashes. The US military had no immediate comment.

The fighting between Iraqi and US troops and Shi'ite militias was taking place in the predominantly Shi'ite village of Khairnabat, outside Baquba, capital of Diyala province.

Local residents reported hearing shooting and explosions. A bomb in the town's main market killed 18 people on Monday.

Shi'ite militiamen fired mortars at a Sunni mosque in nearby Miqdadiya on Wednesday, destroying the building and 20 shops.

Police said the mosque attack and other attacks on Sunnis in Khairnabat itself persuaded Sunnis that it would be safer to leave the village.

But as a convoy of vehicles was leaving yesterday, "gunmen surrounded them and started shooting", a captain in Diyala's police intelligence unit said.

The captain and other Interior Ministry sources said the commander of the quick reaction force, Colonel Sami Hussein, and two of his men were killed by a sniper.

No other casualties were reported from the clashes and police said it was not clear how many civilians had been killed or wounded in the initial shooting..