Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. Marine and an Iraqi soldier were killed and 12 people wounded in attacks today in Iraq, the U.S. military said. The Associated Press said nine more Iraqis also were killed in violence nationwide.

The Marine died and four others were injured in operations south of Baghdad, the military said in an e-mailed statement. The Iraqi soldier was killed in a car bombing that injured five civilians and two policemen near Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad, at about 11:35 a.m. local time, said U.S. Army spokesman Captain Bill Coppernoll in a telephone interview from Tikrit.

The attacks come three days before Iraq's elections, which interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi pledged will go ahead, defying the insurgency. The U.S. yesterday suffered its deadliest day since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with 37 members of the military killed, 31 of them in a helicopter crash.

Three Iraqis were killed in a house in Samarra, north of Baghdad, when a car bomb detonated nearby, AP said. Police there also said armed men blew up a school that was to be used as a polling station, the agency reported. South of Baghdad, three Iraqis were killed by a roadside bomb, and three others died in incidents elsewhere in the country, AP said.

In another incident, a U.S. soldier was injured by a roadside bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk, Coppernoll said.

Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Jan. 23 declared war on the elections, calling the concept of people as the source of power ``infidelity itself.'' Allawi's government has put in place a series of measures, including curfews, border closures and restrictions on vehicle movement, to protect voters in the Jan. 30 poll from attacks by insurgents.

As of 10 a.m. Washington time yesterday, the Pentagon listed 1,374 U.S. military personnel and three Department of Defense civilian workers as killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, three-quarters of the deaths coming in hostilities.

As many as 17,721 civilians have been killed as a result of the invasion and subsequent violence, according to Iraq Body Count, a London-based group that opposes the war and compiles its casualty toll from media reports.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 27, 2005 09:48 EST