http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20031103/ts_nm/iraq_dc<snip>
The number of Iraqis killed since March is in the thousands and steadily climbing.
On Sunday night near Balad, north of Baghdad, U.S. forces fired on a pickup truck, killing six Iraqis, residents said. U.S. soldiers said the vehicle was suspected of carrying insurgents and that the incident was being investigated.
Locals said the group had been returning from prayers.
The U.S.-led administration said in a statement that Mustafa Zaidan al-Khaleefa, head of Baghdad's Karkh Neighborhood Council, was killed Sunday evening while walking near his home. Two gunmen shot him as they drove by, it said.
A mortar attack by unknown assailants in the northern town of Kirkuk late Sunday killed two people and wounded six.
Also on Sunday night, witnesses said an 11-year-old Iraqi boy was killed near Falluja after he was caught in a firefight between U.S. troops and insurgents.
On Monday in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, an Iraqi was killed and seven were wounded in a roadside bomb blast.
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