Dozens of militants ambushed a US supply convoy, drawing return fire that left 26 insurgents dead - the highest rebel death toll reported from one clash in four months, the US military said yesterday.

　　Between 40 to 50 guerrillas opened fire on military police and artillery units from the Kentucky National Guard late on Sunday along a road 30 kilometers southeast of Baghdad.

　　The higher death toll was attributed to the unusually large number of attackers, who usually travel in smaller bands or employ hidden explosives. US military officials said it was the highest number of insurgents killed in a clash since the November assault on the city of Fallujah.

　　Six soldiers and seven militants were also wounded in the attack. One person was arrested.

　　The route has seen an increase in violence, with another US convoy attacked on Friday in nearly the same spot.

　　"This road has had increased attacks on coalition forces," the US military said in a statement.

　　After the attack, troops recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault weapons, more than 2,900 rounds of ammunition, and 40 hand grenades from the insurgents. The fight is among the heaviest reported since Iraq's January 30 elections.

　　Also yesterday, attacks across the country left seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers dead.

　　A roadside explosion in Aziziyah, 55 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, killed four women and three children, police Captain Falah al-Muhmadawi said.

　　A Defense Ministry official said an Iraqi soldier was killed in Sherqat, 250 kilometers north of Baghdad, when a mortar shell landed on his army camp. Another soldier died and four others were wounded when an Iraqi army vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in western Baghdad.

　　Nearby, in the neighborhood of Amiriyah, gunmen in two speeding cars fired on an Iraq army foot patrol, killing another soldier and wounding a third, police Captain Talib Thamir said.

　　Nearby, the head of the Kazimiyah neighborhood police force, Colonel Mou'yad Farhan, escaped unhurt when gunmen opened fire on his car. His driver, however, was seriously injured.

　　In Samarra, an explosives-laden Chevrolet pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber went off prematurely near a hospital, wounding about a dozen civilians and damaging homes, police First Lieutenant Qassem Mohammed said.

　　Police also said the director of the Iraqi Army's legal department in northern Kirkuk, Lieutenant Colonel Hawas al-Bayati, was shot and critically injured late on Sunday outside his home. Further south, troops killed two suspected terrorists and detained two others after they discovered the men digging holes along the road, preparing to hide homemade bombs.

　　The US military reported the death of one of its troops: A soldier killed a day earlier during action in restive Anbar province.

　　It also said that 10 men captured by Iraqi soldiers last week had confessed to staging a March 9 Baghdad car-bomb attack near the Agricultural Ministry and a hotel favored by Westerners. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed in that attack.

　　(The Associated Press)