The latest wave of insurgent attacks in Iraq has left at least eight people dead, including three people apparently trying to plant a bomb. Local authorities in northern Iraq say a bomb exploded prematurely while the three men were trying to place it at a municipal building near the town of Kirkuk.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military says an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad Friday. Officials also said a U.S. Marine died in hostile action west of the capital on Thursday.
Also Thursday, three Iraqi police officers died after a drive-by attack in the town of Baquba, 65 kilometers north of Baghdad.
In other developments, several clerics in Fallujah told worshippers at Friday prayers that mutilating bodies is prohibited in Islam. Four American civilian security workers were killed in the town Wednesday and their bodies mutilated and put on display.