Five US marines were killed in a bomb attack in western Iraq, the military said on Friday, while 17 unidentified bodies were discovered deeper in the country's rebel heartland hard on the Syrian border. "Five marines were killed in action on Thursday when their vehicle hit an explosive device while conducting combat operations near Haqlaniyah," the US military said. On November 7, insurgents stormed police stations in Haqlaniya and nearby Haditha and executed 21 policemen.Residents of Al-Qaim said 11 executed bodies had been found, a day after a Defence Ministry official reported that six other murdered men had been discovered nearby. The identities of the victims were not immediately clear but a military source said on Wednesday that 22 Shia soldiers had been captured near Rawa.
Gunmen killed the head of an Iraqi police unit and his companion in Kirkuk. Police identified the dead men as Colonel Rahim Uthman, head of the anti-terrorist department on the local force, and Major Ghanim Jihad. In Basra, Colonel Abdelkarim al-Daraji was shot dead in his car with a second person, police said.