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11 Iraqi soldiers killed in ambush

Attack follows deaths of 10 Marines as elections approach

Iraqi security forces take position at an army checkpoint in Baghdad on Saturday.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two days after a roadside bomb killed 10 U.S. Marines on patrol in Falluja, insurgents in Iraq on Saturday staged another deadly strike, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers in an ambush north of Baghdad.

Attackers wielding small arms and detonating roadside bombs struck in the late morning near Adhaim, a Diyala province town 62 miles north of the capital, a U.S. military official reported.

Ten soldiers died in the strike and the body of an 11th soldier, a major who was kidnapped, was recovered later, according to an official with Diyala's provincial Joint Coordination Center.

Such attacks -- erupting less than two weeks from the December 15 parliamentary elections -- have been predicted by U.S. military officials who say the insurgents will do what they can to disrupt the voting.

"In the next 15 days there's going to be attacks. There's going to be suicide bombs. There's going to be horrific acts of violence, candidly," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a military spokesman, said Thursday during a press conference.

He predicted terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would look to "get the most international media attention so he can, indeed, try to derail the democratic process."

U.S. and Iraqi troops attempting to restore order ahead of the election have launched a series of operations in Ramadi, where they believe insurgents based in towns along the Euphrates River corridor have been congregating.

Operation Shank is the latest operation in the Ramadi region.

Also, troops near Hit, farther west of Ramadi, have been conducting Operation Iron Hammer.

The Marines who died in Falluja on Thursday had not been part of one of these major operations.

Was the attack taped?

Instead, they were conducting a nighttime foot patrol when a roadside bomb fashioned with large artillery shells detonated. Eleven other troops were wounded in the incident. (Names of the Marines who died)

Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera aired a video Saturday that purportedly showed a bomb detonate on a U.S. military convoy near Falluja.

The network did not indicate whether it was the blast that killed the Marines on Thursday, but the announcer referenced the incident as the tape aired.

The tape, which shows an explosion ripping through a U.S. convoy, came from an insurgent group called the Islamic Army of Iraq, Al-Jazeera said, adding that the tape's authenticity could not be confirmed.

The report stated that the group also claimed responsibility for two other attacks on U.S. forces, one in Nasiriya that killed three American soldiers and another in Duluyia, a town north of Baghdad.

The U.S. military said earlier this week that three U.S. soldiers from the National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team were killed during a traffic accident in the Nasiriya area Friday.

The deaths of the 10 Marines -- along with the three soldiers killed in the vehicle accident and a U.S. soldier killed in a rocket attack in Ramadi on Thursday -- bring the number of U.S. troop fatalities in the war to 2,127.

Along with attacks, kidnappings have been a tactic employed by insurgents. The abduction of four Western peace activists last weekend has left the West and Iraq on edge. (Watch more on the humanitarian organization to which they belonged -- 2:16)

Al-Jazeera on Friday aired video that appeared to show the four captive peace activists and read a statement the network said was from the hostage takers. (Full story)

The kidnappers threatened to kill the hostages -- an American, a Briton and two Canadians -- if demands are not met by December 8.

CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video or the statement.

According to the statement read by Al-Jazeera, the Swords of Justice Brigades is demanding the Iraqi government free all prisoners from its jails.

The network said that the American and British hostages called on the U.S. and British governments to end all military presence in Iraq.

Other developments

The U.S. military reported Saturday that a detainee has died in custody at Abu Ghraib. A news release said a "67-year-old male security detainee was pronounced dead by the attending physician at the 344th Corps Support Hospital" on Friday.

Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms targeted two brothers who serve on Iraq's electoral board, killing one and wounding the other, police in Baquba said Friday.

The Defense Department says it is looking into a military program that pays Iraqi media to publish favorable stories about the war and the reconstruction effort. (Full story)

CNN's Kevin Flower, Arwa Damon and Mohammed Tawfeeq and Mike Mount contributed to this report.

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