The US troops killed three Iraqis in a raid on suspect insurgents in Dhuluiyah town north of Baghdad, an Iraqi-US liaison office in Tikrit said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement gave no further details about the incident.

A source from Dhuluiyah police told Xinhua that after the US troops stormed several houses late last night, they informed the police in the town of three bodies in one of the houses.

"According to the police investigation the US soldiers arrested Dhrgham Shiyaa in his house and took him to his neighbor house where they arrested Fuad Abdullah Ubaid, a policeman, and his cousin Ahmed Karim Khalaf, an army soldier, and killed the three," the source said.

The police found the three bodies in a room of Ubaid's house with 24 empty cartridges.

The US military said their soldiers killed three insurgents on Saturday when they attacked a US patrol with small arms fire near Dhuluiyah, some 90 km north of Baghdad.

Insurgents frequently attack US troops in the Sunni Arab cities of Salahudin province, where Dhuluiyah is located, and the US troops often accused some Iraqi security members of collaboration with the insurgency.

Source: Xinhua