Eight US troops and dozens of Iraqis were killed in two days of relentless insurgent attacks across Iraq against military and Shia targets. Amid the raging violence, Iraq's political transition took a small step forward Tuesday, with the appointment of a chairman for the committee tasked with drafting a permanent constitution by August. Three US soldiers died on Tuesday when a bomb exploded as their convoy drove by and a fourth was killed 30 minutes later in a separate incident when gunmen shot him from a passing car, an army spokesman said.

Four US soldiers were also killed in a bombing on Monday near Haswa, about 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in the city centre. "Two charred bodies that are difficult to identify were found at the scene of the attack," an interior ministry official said.

Southeast of the capital, five civilians were shot dead near the Tigris Valley town of Suwairah, medical and security sources said.

Humam Hammudi, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, will head the 55-member committee.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005