The attack began with an improvised explosive device detonating next to the Marine's vehicle in the town of Haditha, 220km northwest of Baghdad, on Saturday, the US command said.

Fifteen Iraqi civilians were also killed by the blast, which was followed by an insurgent attack with small arms fire, the statement said.

"Iraqi army soldiers and Marines returned fire killing eight insurgents and wounding another," the statement said.

A British soldier was killed and four wounded yesterday by a roadside bomb in Iraq's southern city of Basra following two days of violence that left at least 120 people dead nationwide, mainly Shias.

The latest attack on US-led forces took place in the southern port city of Basra, an area which has seen growing tension between British troops and Shia militias.

"We can confirm there was one fatality and four injured," British army spokesman Major Steve Melbourne said.

Earlier, five other American soldiers -- assigned to the third Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division -- died in a pair of roadside bombings near Beiji, 255km north of Baghdad, the US command said. Five others from the same unit were wounded.

Another soldier from the 101st died in a US hospital in Germany of injuries suffered two days ago when his vehicle was deliberately rammed by an Iraqi car near Beiji, the US command said Saturday.

At least 2,091 members of the US military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Also on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated his car in a crowd of Shia mourners north of Baghdad, killing at least 36 people and raising the death toll in two days of attacks against Shias to more than 120.