Insurgents in Iraq launched a wave of suicide attacks against U.S. forces and kidnapped an American contractor Monday.

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy says the contractor was abducted near Baghdad.

Earlier, suicide bombers blew up three vehicles at the entrance to a U.S. base in western Iraq. Three U.S. Marines and three Iraqi civilians were wounded. Insurgents in another vehicle opened fire on the base before a U.S. helicopter destroyed their car.

And in Samarra, a suicide car bomber killed three people and wounded 20 others when his vehicle exploded near a U.S. convoy.

Meanwhile, media reports say the U.S. Defense Department may withdraw tens of thousands of troops from Iraq by early next year.