Iraq car bomb suspects detained

The two were caught during operations in Adhamiya, a mainly Sunni Arab area in northern Baghdad, last week.

Since November, US officials estimate that 1,950 people have also been wounded in the attacks, most of them in the Shia district of Sadr City.

US and Iraqi forces are engaged in a major security crackdown in Baghdad.

Separately, at least 10 people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide car bomb attack outside the western city of Ramadi.

Fierce fighting

US military spokesman Major Steven Lamb said the two arrested men were part of the same cell but that he had no information on whether they were linked to al-Qaeda or another insurgent group.

The alleged leader of the group, Haytham al-Shimari, was captured after he tried to evade troops who flagged his vehicle down.

His alleged deputy, Haydar al-Jafar, was detained in a separate incident hours later.

Two other suspected members of the cell were also held.

The suicide bomb attack in Ramadi came in the al-Jazeera district, north-east of the city, police said.

US and Iraqi forces have been involved in fierce fighting with insurgents in the area, and the US military recently launched what it called a major operation to remove al-Qaeda militants.

In other violence, two elderly women were killed when intruders broke into their home in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

They told Associated Press news agency the women were sisters and both nuns at Kirkuk's Cathedral of the Virgin.

In southern Baghdad, a mortar attack on the Shia enclave of Abu Chir left four dead, including two children, and 14 other people wounded.

In the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, four people died when gunmen opened fire on a Sunni funeral cortege, Iraqi army officials told Agence France-Presse news agency.