Fresh violence plagued Iraq Saturday, one day after the United Nations sent a two-member team for consultation on possible return of its international staff to this conflict-ridden country.

Five US soldiers and at least three Iraqis were killed in separate bomb attacks, all occurring in the vast area north and west of Baghdad, known as the Sunni Triangle.

Near Khaldiyah, some 70 km west of Baghdad, three US soldiers were killed late Saturday when a car packed with explosives exploded at a checkpoint manned by American forces, said the US military.

The Qatar-based al Jazeera TV channel reported that over 20 US soldiers were stationed at the post when the vehicle pulled up and detonated.

Six other soldiers and several Iraqis were injured in the blast. Two of the six wounded American soldiers were evacuated to a combat hospital while the other four received first aid treatment at the scene, a US military spokesman told Xinhua.

Two other soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing attack which hit a US military convoy at about 9:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT) north the volatile city of Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad.

The latest casualties brought to 512 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the US-led coalition launched the Iraq war on March 20 last year.

In a third attack, a powerful bomb planted in a truck exploded immediately before 10:30 a.m. (07:30 GMT) in Samarra, about 110 km north of Baghdad, killing at least three Iraqis, according to US senior spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

Over 30 others, including several US soldiers were injured in the blast, which went off right after a US military convoy passed by the busy area where the local city council and a police station were located nearby.

Some policemen said that the deadly attack was possibly targeting the council members who were due to meet there before midday.

The fresh assaults appeared to be part of the latest surge in attacks against US forces and their collaborators starting early this week.

A US OH-58 reconnaissance helicopter crashed in northern city of Qayyarah on Friday, killing the two pilots on board, the US army reported but stopped short of confirming the plane hit by enemy fire before crashing.

Three Iraqi policemen guarding at a checkpoint were killed in a drive-by shooting on Thursday in Fallujah, one day after four Iraqi women working at a US camp as laundresses were killed by gunmen in the restive town.

On Wednesday night, two US soldiers were killed and a third was seriously wounded in an insurgent bombardment at a US base near Baquba, 60 km north of Baghdad.

In one of the deadliest bombing attack, a suicide car bomber detonated at the gate of the headquarters of the US-led coalition in central Baghdad last Sunday, killing at least 24 people and wounding about 100 others.

Amid the renewed attacks, a first UN team of two experts arrived in Iraq on Friday to assess the security situation and consult with coalition officials for the possible return of UN international staff.

The world body evacuated its entire foreign staff following two suicide bombings at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 23 people including the top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The new violence further highlighted the volatility in central northern Iraq, populated with Sunni Muslims, who were believed marginalized in the process leading to power transfer and the end of occupation.

However, the Shiite Muslims, making up 60 percent of the Iraqi population and remaining relatively silent facing the occupation, have also posed a major challenge to the US-sponsored power transfer plan.

The Shiites have waged massive demonstrations across Iraq in support of their supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who suggested the direct election of a legislature that shall install an interim government to assume sovereignty from the occupational authority.

But US officials have formally rejected the suggestion, insisting on the original blueprint that will oversee the selection of the transitional legislature by US-favored provisional caucuses.

In an effort to avoid potential violence, the two parties turned to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has pledged to consider sending a special team to study the possibility of holding general elections.

In turn, Sistani called during a Friday sermon for an immediate halt to anti-US demonstrations in the country to wait and see Washington's clear stance on future Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2004)