Insurgents killed nine Iraqi soldiers Monday in a town north of Baghdad _ seven of them in an armed assault on a checkpoint and two others in a car bombing more than an hour later, Iraqi officials said. The attacks came a day after a surge in violence _ including suicide bombings and ambushes _ killed nearly 60 people across the country, shattering a relative lull for the previous week. Monday's first attack occurred about 5 a.m. (0100 gmt) when gunmen firing mortars, machine guns and semiautomatic weapons stormed a checkpoint in Khalis, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Col. Abdullah al-Shimmari said. Seven soldiers were killed. Three people, including one civilian, were injured in that attack. At 6:30 a.m. (0230 gmt), a car bomb parked alongside a road exploded as an Iraqi army patrol passed, killing two soldiers and wounding another, al-Shimmari was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
