Two bombs landed on homes in Khabat in the early evening, killing one man and injuring three civilians, one seriously, security officer Bikas Bekhudan told AFP. Two of the injured were women.

In the morning, US-led coalition air raids targeted Iraqi positions near the town of Khazer, 10 kilometers (six miles) away, where forces loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have been holed up since early Thursday and which lies on the road to the northern city of Mosul.

The raids came as US special units were accompanying peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) in their drive toward the main northern city, an AFP correspondent said.

The fighting intensified again in the late afternoon.

According to Kurdish fighters, the coalition planes were called in after clashes started with automatic weapons and then mortars, with Iraqi forces firing at least 100 mortar bombs.

There were no immediate casualty figures.

The peshmerga advanced to the edge of Khazer, which lies half-way between Mosul and Kalak, on the edge of the Kurdish-held north Iraq, the correspondent said.

Iraqi soldiers had fallen back on Khazer after pulling back from Kalak last week.

The fighting came as coalition-backed Kurdish groups were active on a second front, stepping up their operations around the government-held oil capital of Kirkuk, to the south of Mosul.

SPACE.WIRE