Fifteen Iraqis, eight insurgents and a US marine were killed in a roadside bomb blast followed by gunfire in the flashpoint town of Haditha, northwest of Baghdad, the US military said on Sunday.

A roadside bomb detonated on Saturday near a joint US and Iraqi military convoy while passing through Haditha, some 220 km northwest of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

Insurgents opened small arms fire at the convoy sparking a fire fight, the statement added.

A US marine, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division, was killed when his vehicle was hit in the blast, said the statement.

Eight insurgents were killed in the clash and another wounded, while fifteen civilians were also killed in the area, it said.

Earlier, the US military reported that five US soldiers were killed and five others wounded in two separate roadside bomb attacks in northern Iraq on Saturday.

The soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were killed while patrolling near Beiji, 250 km north of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement.

Over 2,080 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the US- led invasion in March, 2003.

Source: Xinhua