Militants execute 11 Iraqi guards

At least two Iraqis were killed in clashes Thursday between US troops and insurgents in the restive city of Ramadi, as a militant group claimed it had executed 11 members of the Iraqi National Guard.

A Polish-Iraqi woman became the latest Westerner to be taken hostage in the violence-racked country, while two US soldiers were killed in attacks in and to the north of Baghdad.

US marines said the fighting erupted in Ramadi after a patrol came under fire during a pre-dawn search of houses for weapons in the city, west of Baghdad.

Doctors at a local hospital said at least two people were killed and eight wounded, while the military said three marines were wounded.

"We have known for some time that the area was a hub for IED (improvised explosive device) making," said Captain Sean Kuehl, explaining why the marines conducted the raid which he said had netted 15 suspects.

In nearby Fallujah, US planes conducted another air strike overnight against what the military said was a suspected safehouse for militants loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the alleged frontman for the al-Qaeda terror network in Iraq. Hospitals reported three dead.

US and Iraqi forces have been at the gates of Fallujah since mid-October amid talk of an imminent assault to regain the city from the grip of insurgents ahead of nationwide elections in January.

In a renewed example of the willingness of insurgents to strike at Iraq's fledgling security forces, the al-Qaeda-linked Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it had executed 11 members of the Iraqi National Guard.

"The ruling of God has been implemented against them by slaughtering one and killing the others by firing squad," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.

The claim came just days after insurgents massacred almost 50 Iraqi army cadets by a roadside in the east of the country with a single bullet to the head.

The Iraqi interior ministry confirmed a Polish-Iraqi woman was kidnapped in Baghdad after Arab television station Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of the hostage.

"The woman has been living in Iraq for a long time and she holds Iraqi citizenship," a ministry spokesman told AFP. "She was taken I think from her home in Baghdad last night."

The middle-aged woman was shown on Al-Jazeera with one of two hooded men pointing a gun to her head and the group demanding that Poland pull out its troops from Iraq. No deadline was given.

Poland immediately rejected meeting demands of any kidnappers. "The Polish government is not in the business of meeting kidnappers' demands," Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.