Kirkuk, 13 October (AKI) - Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bomb attack on Tuesday southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, a senior security official said, quoted by the Voices of Iraq news agency. The bombing came after at least six people died and 16 were injured in a spate of attacks across Iraq on Monday.

Kirkuk, a city of mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen population, lies 250 kilometres northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Its nearby oil reserves make it the centre of ethnic tensions, especially between the Arab and Kurdish populations.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed casualties from three car bombs targeting Iraqi officials gathered for a meeting on national reconciliation in the volatile al-Anbar's provincial government headquarters in Ramadi, rose to 25 dead and 58 injured on Monday, police said.

Also on Monday, at least six people were killed in fresh attacks across Iraq.

Three civilians were killed and six others were injured when a roadside bomb apparently targeting a police patrol exploded in the neighbourhood of al-Thawra, west of the city of Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad.

In the nearby district of al-Islah al-Zaraai, a family of six, including three small children, were injured when a bomb exploded in their neighbour's house, police said.

A group of gunmen on Monday fatally shot an Iraqi construction contractor outside Ramadi, police said. They declined to say whether the killing was an underworld crime or politically motivated.

Police said that two civilians had been killed when a bomb exploded in the district of al-Tahrir, east of Ramadi.

A tailor who makes police uniforms was wounded by a bomb left in front of his shop in central Mosul, police added.

Mosul and surrounding areas of Nineveh province are among the most ethnically diverse locations in Iraq and remain among those most prone to violence.

Even as most of the country has become safer in recent years, Mosul continues to be the site of near-daily deadly attacks. Political tensions have been particularly high there since and Arab-nationalist provincial government took power in January on a platform of taking control of the province and its security forces from Kurdish parties.

As the casualties mounted on Monday, Iraqi security forces acting with advisors from the US military arrested four men suspected of organising car-bomb attacks in the area around Ramadi.

Those arrested included a man suspected of being the cell's ringleader, the US military said in a statement on Monday.

The arrests took place in Taji, just to the north of Baghdad, the US military said.

Some 40 kilometres to the south of Kirkuk, in the village of Yirghun al-Kabir, Iraqi and US forces launched a joint raid that netted another three suspected insurgents, police in Kirkuk said.

Iraqi security forces arrested five suspected Al-Qaeda militants from the village of al-Dibs, south of Kirkuk, local police said.

In the central Iraqi city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, police arrested another five men suspected of involvement in "terrorist crimes. The area has been the site of deadly bomb attacks in recent weeks.

Attacks in Iraq as a whole have declined dramatically compared to last year, however. A total 203 people met violent deaths across the country in September - less than half the death toll of the previous month, official figures showed last week. It was the lowest monthly toll since May.