Five US soldiers were killed in a road accident while another soldier died from bomb blast injuries, the military said yesterday.

Fighting erupted in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood as Iraqi police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote in Sunday's national elections.

About the same time and in the same neighborhood, insurgents opened fire on police who were checking out a report of a possible car bomb. Seven police died in the ambush, according to policeman Khazim Hussein.

Another bomb blew off the gate of a secondary school in the neighborhood and gunmen opened fire on Iraqi and US forces responding to the blast. A witnesses said two Iraqi policemen and an insurgent were killed.

Altogether, 11 policeman were killed in the various clashes, according to an official at Kindi Hospital.

Officials have warned of a surge in violence around Sunday's national elections.

The slain judge was identified as Qais Hashim Shameri, secretary general of the judges council in the Justice Ministry. Assailants sprayed his car with bullets in an attack that also wounded the judge's driver.

Assailants also shot dead a man who worked for a district council in western Baghdad as he was on his way to work, police said.

In a third ambush, gunmen firing from a speeding car wounded three staffers from the Communications Ministry as they were going to work, police Lt. Iyman Abdul-Hamid said. The three workers, one of them a woman with serious injuries, were rushed to a hospital.

Attackers also shot dead the son of an Iraqi translator working with US troops, police said.

A police colonel was also gunned down along with his 5-year-old daughter on Monday as he was driving in southern Baghdad, officials said Tuesday. Col. Nadir Hassan was in charge of police protection forces for electric power facilities in two provinces flanking the capital.

Insurgents have targeted scores of Iraqi interim government and police officials in car bombings and drive-by shootings. Earlier this month, gunmen killed the governor of Baghdad province and the capital's deputy police chief.

Iraqis are to choose a 275-member National Assembly and legislatures in each of the 18 provinces in Sunday's balloting. Voters in the Kurdish-ruled area of the north will also elect a new regional parliament.

Many Sunni Arabs are expected to boycott the elections, either to express opposition to the process or for fear of reprisals. Shiites and Kurds are expected to vote in huge numbers.

Northeast of Baghdad, a US Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled into a canal during a combat patrol, killing five American soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division and wounding two others, the military said yesterday.

The accident occurred during the patrol near the town of Khan Bani Saad during fierce sandstorms Monday night. The military said the accident was under investigation.

Another US soldier died of wounds from a roadside bomb that blasted an American patrol in Baghdad, the military said yesterday.

"A Task Force Baghdad Soldier died of wounds at approximately 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) January 24. The soldier sustained the injuries when a patrol was attacked with an improvised explosive device in western Baghdad," the military said.