Baghdad, Iraq ? A heavy gunfight broke out Monday on a dangerous street in central Baghdad within blocks of the country’s most fortified facilities, including the U.S. Embassy and interim Iraqi government headquarters. Five more American troops were reported killed in the volatile Anbar province, bringing the U.S. toll to at least 1,270.

A dawn attack on a domestic oil pipeline supplying fuel from northern Iraq to Baghdad and clashes that killed three militants in the country’s turbulent west underlined the security difficulties ahead of Jan. 30 national elections.

Heavily armed insurgents have been emboldened by a spate of attacks across Iraq that have claimed more than 80 lives in recent days, mostly Iraqis working for the coalition or Iraqi national security forces.

Monday on Baghdad’s Haifa Street, witnesses said gunmen killed an Iraqi employed by coalition authorities not far from the Green Zone, a heavily guarded compound where American and Iraqi forces protect government officials, diplomats and private contractors.

Initially, witnesses said the gunmen fought U.S. troops. But the U.S. military said late Monday that American troops were not involved.

Haifa Street has been the site of previous battles between insurgents and coalition forces. Despite their overwhelming strength, U.S.-led troops and Iraqi security forces have yet to secure areas surrounding the country’s most vital facilities.

In Washington, President Bush met Iraq’s interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer, and told reporters it was impossible to “guarantee 100 percent security” in Iraq. Bush pledged the United States would do everything it could to make Iraq’s elections as safe as possible.

Al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim, expressed resolve to defeat the insurgents, saying “victory is not only possible, it is a fact.” He said most Iraqis want the elections. His White House visit is seen as a way to persuade Iraq’s political minorities, comprising mostly Sunni groups, not to boycott the elections.

Sunnis represent one-fifth of Iraq’s nearly 26 million people and wielded the power under Saddam Hussein. They fear the election will give Shiites, with 60 percent of the population, an overpowering grip on the nation. U.S. and Iraqi officials are concerned that a boycott by Sunnis could undermine the legitimacy of a new government.

Police said an Iraqi translator working for U.S. forces in Ramadi, Bashar Mohammed, was kidnapped by militants Sunday. Gunmen in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, killed a child Monday in a failed attempt to assassinate police Col. Jalil Yassin and his two bodyguards. They were wounded.

American forces also announced the arrest of 42 suspected militants Sunday and early Monday in the northern cities of Mosul, Beiji, Tikrit and Samarra.

U.S. troops inspect a site where an abandoned car packed with explosives was detonated in Baghdad, Iraq. Monday's violence included a gun battle among insurgents in the streets of the capital and a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. patrol that wounded one soldier.