BAGHDAD, 29 April 2006 — Iraqi and US troops killed a leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq yesterday and the city of Baquba was under curfew after at least 30 people died a day earlier in one of the biggest recent battles with insurgents.

Humadi Al-Takhi, a well-known figure locally and reputed to be the district Al-Qaeda chief, was killed in a raid on a house just outside the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

He is the third brother from his family to die as a senior member of Al-Qaeda, assuming the Samarra leadership last year when his elder brother Najim was arrested and later found dead.

Another Al-Qaeda leader was arrested nearby on Thursday. The US says Al-Qaeda and its leader, Jordanian Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, are the driving force behind the bloody insurgency against US and Iraqi forces and fomenting sectarian violence.

Shiite Prime Minister-designate Nuri Al-Maliki says he hopes to name a new Cabinet next week sharing power among Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, a move many believe is vital for soothing sectarian tensions and quelling the insurgency.

Samarra, a hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency, is the city where a Shiite mosque was bombed in February, unleashing a wave of sectarian bloodshed across the country. Zarqawi denied US and Iraqi accusations that Al-Qaeda was behind the bombing.

The US estimates violence against civilians almost doubled, jumping 90 percent, over the 10 weeks since the mosque blast.

Zarqawi appeared in a rare video aired this week, saying his holy warriors would fight on and accusing the United States of installing a puppet regime so it could flee Iraq.

In the city of Baquba, to the east of Samarra, the streets were quiet after a daytime curfew was imposed following an attack on police and army posts on Thursday by at least 100 rebels.

In one raid, insurgents attacked a police station and five police checkpoints with mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Iraqi soldiers and police killed 17 rebels, the US military said. One Iraqi soldier was killed and two were wounded. In a separate operation, insurgents also armed with mortar rounds and rocket launchers attacked an Iraqi Army headquarters. Four insurgents were killed and six Iraqi soldiers died in those clashes, which also left two civilians dead.