BAQOUBA, Iraq ,(Saba) - Insurgents launched a spate of attacks in the strife-ridden northern city of Baqouba, killing three people and wounding two, hospital officials and witnesses said. Six guerrillas were also killed.

Witnesses identified the wounded official as Mahmoud Mohammed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party's minister of culture. At least five of
Mohammed's bodyguards were also wounded in the blast.

In Baqouba, the rebels attacked the offices of two political parties, a police station and a government building, as U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces took up defensive positions across the city, the center of Iraq's orange-growing region, the U.S. military said.

TD/KM

SABA