Updated on Saturday, December 02, 2006, 00:00 IST

Baghdad, Dec 02: At least nine people were killed around Iraq today as insurgents and sectarian militia launched gun and bomb attacks in the region around the war-torn capital Baghdad.

A further three people were killed when a truck hit a crowd south of the city, but doctor Hamed Hussein -- whose hospital received the victims -- said it was thought to have been an accident rather than a deliberate attack.

North of Baghdad, suspected Sunni insurgents opened fire on a convoy carrying Shiite corpses south from the town of Khalis en route for the holy city of Najaf and its huge cemetery, police said.

Two Shiites were killed in the attack and two more civilians died when gunmen opened fire in Khalis market, an officer told media persons.

Iraqi police clashed briefly with militia fighters in Samawa, 250 kilometres south of the capital, in a battle which left one 14-year-old male bystander dead, police there said.

For the past three days there have been intermittent clashes in the southern town as rival militias, some of whom control the security agencies, battle it out in a province that has been handed over to Iraqi control.

Roadside boobytraps exploded outside Iskandariyah and Musayyib just south of Baghdad, killing two motorists, while a larger blast outside Yusifiyah killed a police officer and wounded six more, police said.

In the capital itself, assassins gunned down interior ministry official captain Haider Musa in Jadida district in the east of the city, a security official told media persons.

Bureau Report