Baghdad - US forces killed an al-Qaeda leader and mastermind, who is believed to have overseen a wave of bombings that recently hit the Iraqi capital, the US Army said in a statement.

Abu Rami, who is also believed to be behind the killing of a group of Russian diplomats in 2006, was killed in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah on Friday.

The military said intelligence reports led US forces to a building where Abu Rami was hiding.

The troops came under attack from inside the building and fired back, killing Abu Rami and an unnamed woman.

Baghdad - Iraq's presidential council endorsed a long- delayed provincial election law, according to a statement issued on Friday by the office of Tareq al-Hashemi, deputy to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

However, the council expressed reservations over the cancellation of Article 50, which meant that minorities would not be able to take part in the elections, according to the statement.

Earlier on Friday, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said that the president did not endorse the law after expressing his concern for emitting the article addressing quotas for minorities in the provincial councils.

VOI quoted Burham Saleh, Talabani's deputy in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Baghdad - One US soldier was killed on Friday in the northern city of Amara, while two Iraqi policemen were killed in Mosul.

A US soldier was killed when a bomb went off near his patrol south of Amara city, the US military said on Friday.

The soldier, who was killed on Thursday, was the first US military death in Iraq this month, according to the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the March 2003 US- led invasion rose to 4,177. The September toll was 25. The number hit an all-time low in July with 13 killed.

Baghdad - Iraq's Presidential Council did not ratify a new provincial elections law because of fears that minorities would not be guaranteed representation in provincial councils, an Iraqi news organization said Friday quoting the deputy prime minister.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani did not endorse the law after expressing his concern after the emission of an article addressing quotas for minorities in the provincial councils, the Voices of Iraq 
(VOI) news agency said quoting Barham Saleh.

Baghdad- US forces released more than 2,250 Iraqi detainees during the fasting month of Ramadan which ended this week, a US forces media advisor said Friday.

"The detainees were released from Krupper jail near Baghdad airport and the Bucca detention center in west of Basra," Kareem al- Sayab told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Some 17,800 Iraqi prisoners are in US detention centres as well as foreigners, al-Sayab added.

Baghdad- Turkish warplanes bombed Thursday evening mountainous areas in al-Sulmaniyah region north of Iraq, a Kurdish source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Friday.

"Turkish planes bombed Kandil Mountains for three and a half hours," the source said. Sulmaniyah is located some 350 kilometres north-east the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

No casualties were reported from the bombing, the source said.

Turkish planes and artillery often bomb north of Iraq, targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PPK).