Eleven killed in latest Iraq violence

* 3 US troops, 2 CNN staff and 2 Iraqi policemen among dead
* Annan says UN will send mission to decide Iraqi polls

BAGHDAD: At least three US soldiers were killed and one wounded when a roadside bomb exploded west of the Iraqi capital and US troops killed three Iraqis in raids on Tuesday, the US military said.

Two Cable News Network (CNN) employees and two Iraqi policemen were killed in an ambush in Iraq on Tuesday.

Witnesses said there were also several Iraqi civilian casualties in the blast.

“The last report I have is that three soldiers were killed and one wounded,” a US spokesman said.

The three armed Iraqis were killed early Tuesday in raids by the US military in the main oil refinery town of Baiji, a US spokesman said.

“Three armed attackers were killed when they confronted US soldiers raiding four locations simultaneously in Baiji,” the distribution hub for production from Iraq’s northern oilfields, said Master Sergeant Robert Cargie.

A rocket hit the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad, sparking a major alert. The rocket exploded late Monday in a parking lot within the heavily-fortified “Green Zone,” the nerve centre of US led operations in Iraq.

There were no casualties, a US military spokesman said.

CNN said a translator/producer and a driver were killed when their two-car convoy was returning to Baghdad from an assignment.

Armed insurgents attacked the headquarters of Polish forces in Karbala, triggering a gunbattle that killed one Iraqi policeman, officials said.

Late Monday, a group of gunmen fired rifles at a hotel building housing Polish troops in the holy city of Karbala, but were repulsed by Iraqi police, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mashawi.

An Iraqi policeman and an assailant were killed Tuesday in an attack on a police station in Haditha, 250 kilometers west of Baghdad, a police officer said.

“Four armed men stormed the station at around 3:30pm (1230 GMT) to free a relative detained there,” said Sarmat Laak.

The United Nations will send a mission to Iraq to study whether fair and credible elections can be held before the planned handover of sovereignty at the end of June, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.

“I have come to the conclusion that the UN can play a constructive role in helping to find a way out from the current impasse,” Annan said in a statement in Paris. —Agencies

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