Hundreds of Iraqis, meanwhile, mourned the death of a Shia politician's relative in a bomb blast in his shop the previous day.

A roadside bomb killed three soldiers from the 1st Armored Division and wounded another during a patrol Saturday night in southeastern Baghdad, a spokeswoman for the US-led coalition spokeswoman said.

That followed a similar attack in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit that killed two American soldiers and wounded three others.

US forces responded by making several arrests and dispatching troops into the streets in a show of force on the same day that the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, took control of the restive Sunni Triangle town in a troop rotation.

Soldiers who have been on the front line facing the anti-US insurgency believed led by Saddam loyalists and Islamic militants have been carrying out joint patrols with the newcomers. Saturday was only the second day that troops from the German-based 18th Regiment patrolled alone.

A sixth soldier died at a combat hospital from injuries suffered in a blast in the Iraqi capital last morning, the spokeswoman said.

In Baghdad, about 1,000 mourners attended the funeral on Sunday of Haidar al-Qazwini, the brother-in-law of Shiite council member Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite member of the Iraqi Governing Council.