6 dead as US soldiers, rebels clash in Iraq

The bloodshed came on a day that saw sectarian violence kill 10 other Iraqis and wound about 50.

US soldiers fought with suspected insurgents using a building as a safe house in Ramadi, killing one Iraqi man and five females, ranging in age from an infant to teenagers, the US military said.

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Ramadi, 113 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been the scene of some of Iraq's fiercest fighting between US forces and Sunni insurgents.

It is the capital of Anbar province, where many Iraqi insurgents are based.

The bloodshed came on a day that saw sectarian violence kill 10 other Iraqis and wound about 50, police said.

The bodies of 50 torture victims also were discovered on Tuesday, most of them in Baghdad and the city of Baquba to the north, police said.

Several of the corpses had been dumped at a bus station or outside a government building.

The battle in Ramadi began when a US patrol discovered a roadside bomb in the Hamaniyah section of the city, and two suspected insurgents fled to a house, where they took up positions on the roof, the military said.

As coalition forces removed the bomb, the militants fired on the soldiers, who fought back with machine guns and tanks, the statement said.

Afterward, coalition forces searched the house and found the six bodies, ranging in age from an infant to teenagers, the military said, without providing ages. Another female was wounded but refused treatment, it said.

One of the gunmen may have been wounded and removed from the scene by other militants, the statement said, adding that there were no coalition casualties.