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).

Baghdad - More than 10,000 Iraqi Christians demonstrated Thursday in the northern Dahuk province, demanding self-rule in their area and restoration of a clause in the new elections law that would guarantee their representation in provincial councils.

"The demonstrators will present an official memo to the local authorities in Dahuk province to back their efforts and help them demand the rights of our people," Jamal Zeno, the chief of the Chaldo-Assyrian Popular Council, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Baghdad  - At least 13 persons were killed Thursday and another 49 were injured in a double suicide attacks in Baghdad during the first day the Eid al-Fitr, an Iraqi security official said.

The first attack was close to a Shiite mosque in al-Rasoul area in new Baghdad, Geranial Qassem Attah told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

He said that a security official threw himself at the bomber in an attempt to stop him. But the suicide attacker detonated himself, killing the security man, some 80 meters away from the mosque.

Altogether, six people were killed and 26 were injured in that attack.