BAGHDAD (AP) -- A massive car bomb exploded Monday on the outskirts
of Fallujah, killing seven U.S. marines and wounding several others in
the deadliest attack on Americans since May.

The attack, 15 kilometres north of Fallujah -- a stronghold for
Sunni insurgents -- destroyed two Humvees, witnesses said. U.S.
officials said medical teams in helicopters swept into the dusty,
barren site to ferry away the injured, and troops sealed off the
surrounding area.

The force of the car bomb outside Fallujah sent the vehicle's engine
"a good distance" from the site, a military official said on condition
of anonymity.

Four Iraqis were wounded by fire from U.S. troops near the site of
the bombing, said Ahmed Bassem of the Fallujah General Hospital.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, an Interior Ministry spokesman said that
medical tests on a man being held in custody showed he is not former
president Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ending
conflicting claims about his purported arrest.

The man is a relative of al-Douri and was wanted by authorities, but
not an important member of Saddam's ousted administration, said
Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim.

With Monday's deaths and those of two U.S. soldiers in a mortar
barrage outside Baghdad a day earlier, 985 U.S. service members have
died since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, according to the U.S.
Defence Department.

U.S. forces have not patrolled inside Fallujah since April, when
U.S. marines ended a three-week siege. The city has since fallen into
the hands of insurgents who have used it as a base to manufacture car
bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces.

The U.S. military has retaliated by launching several air strikes on insurgent safehouses in the city.

Monday's deaths were the largest number of Americans killed in
combat in a single day since May 2, when nine U.S. troops died in
separate mortar attacks and roadside bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi and
Kirkuk.

Seven troops were killed on two different days last month, but in
each case, there were six Americans and one foreign coalition member
who died.

On Sunday, Iraqi officials said they had nabbed al-Douri -- the
most-wanted member of Saddam's regime -- during a shootout north of
Baghdad, but later in the day the Iraqi defence minister said word of
his arrest was "baseless."

"The required tests to identify him showed that he is not Izzat al-Douri," Kadhim told The Associated Press.

There have been incorrect reports of al-Douri's arrest in the past.

American officials believe that al-Douri -- Saddam's former
right-hand man and the king of clubs in the Pentagon's deck of cards --
is playing an organizing role in the 16-month insurgency. The Americans
have offered a $10-million US bounty for his arrest.

Forty-four of the people on the list already have been killed or
captured. Saddam was arrested Dec. 13, hiding in a tiny underground
bunker near Adwar.

Also Monday, a Turkish driver taken hostage in Iraq was released by
his captors, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said. The release came a day
after the driver's company announced it would withdraw from Iraq in
line with his captors' demands.

Elsewhere, U.S. and Iraqi national guardsmen clashed with insurgents
in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said. Hospital
officials said three civilians were killed and nine others wounded in
the fighting late Sunday.

Iraqi police in the northern city of Kirkuk on Monday seized a car
packed with explosives that authorities believed was going to be used
by a suicide bomber, said police Col. Sarhad Qadir. He said 38 people
were detained during the operation.

The seizure came two days after a suicide car bombing outside a
Kirkuk police academy killed 20 and injured 50 in an attack aimed at
disrupting efforts to build an Iraqi security force.

The two U.S. soldiers killed Sunday in the mortar barrage were
members of the 13th Corps Support, as were 16 others injured in the
attack, said Maj. Richard Spiegel. One of the injured was critically
hurt, he said.

Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud said the trial of Saddam and
other indicted officials from his government would start "within a few
weeks . . . before the end of this year and before (Iraqi) elections,"
which are planned for January.

Saddam so far has had seven preliminary charges filed against him,
including gassing thousands of Kurds in 1988, the 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, the suppression of 1991 revolts by Kurds and Shiites, the
murders of religious and political leaders and the mass displacement of
Kurds in the 1980s.

Eleven others have also been charged, including former deputy prime
Minister Tariq Aziz; Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and
former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan.