Fighting between suspected insurgents and Iraqi police killed at least six civilians in Baghdad on Tuesday, and a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier on a foot patrol in another part of the capital, officials said.

The sister and other relatives of Alaa Daraam who was killed in recent sectarian violence, mourn over his coffin during his funeral in Najaf, a Shiite holy city 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Monday, May 15, 2006. [AP]

Another bomb destroyed a liquor store in Baghdad in what appeared to be the third attack on the shop by militants who are determined to impose Islamic customs in Iraq by closing down establishments such as liquor stores and beauty parlors. That blast, one of three heard just past dawn, shook much of central Baghdad.

The gunbattle in Baghdad broke out at about 10:30 a.m. between suspected insurgents riding in three cars and Iraqi police in Dora, one of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods.

At least six civilians were killed and four wounded in the crossfire, said police 1st Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razaq.

The U.S. Army soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded near Rasheed airfield, a former Iraqi air force installation in southern Baghdad, damaging a Humvee and also wounding an Iraqi civilian, said police Lt. Mohammed Hanoun.

The soldier was on a foot patrol near the convoy at the time, the U.S. command said.

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