Mosul: The US army said yesterday it killed 12 insurgents in northern Iraq, destroying their truck with a missile after they opened fire.

"A patrol from 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment was engaged by 12 assailants in a truck with a rocket-propelled grenade near Al Thubat," a US statement said. "The patrol returned fire with a missile, destroying the truck and killing all 12 assailants."

Marines drive off in a Humvee with the body of an Iraqi, northwest of Fallujah. Picture: AP

US forces also killed three people it said were insurgents after clashes broke out at a demonstration in front of Mosul city hall on Friday, the statement said.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in the city of Mosul, 390km north of Baghdad, after the clashes.

Yesterday five policemen, two assailants and a civilian were killed in two separate attacks in Mosul, police said.

Three other policemen and two assailants were killed when gunmen clashed with US troops and Iraqi policemen in a separate incident, said Captain Fawaz Al Sumaydai.

"The clash lasted three hours. Seven armed men attacked the police station in the city center. Policemen and US soldiers retaliated and pursued the assailants, some of whom sought refuge in a mosque and others in a house.

"During the confrontations, three policemen and two assailants were killed. Two other assailants were captured, while three managed to escape," he said.

"Seven other people were injured," he said, without elaborating on the identities of the wounded.

Late Friday, the director of the Iraqi Red Crescent in the Kurdish city of Arbil and his wife were murdered in Mosul.

Red Crescent official Hawar Fares said yesterday that the bodies of Barzan Omar Ahmad and his wife Sazane Ismail Abdullah, who also worked for the Red Crescent, were discovered on a street in the city's Al Intisar neighborhood.