Baghdad, Iraq ? Insurgents ambushed two U.S. military patrols north of Baghdad on Sunday, separate attacks that killed three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi civilian.

Also, the Philippines government rejected an insurgent group’s ultimatum to pull its small peacekeeping force out of Iraq. The group has threatened to kill a Filipino man it is holding hostage.

A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. patrol in the city of Samarra, a hotbed of violence 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed two soldiers Sunday afternoon and wounded three others, the military said.

An earlier attack on a U.S. convoy in Beiji, 90 miles south of the northern city of Mosul, began Sunday morning when a roadside bomb exploded. An enemy vehicle then raced toward the convoy, firing at the soldiers, who shot back and killed the driver, the military said.

A soldier and a civilian traveling behind the patrol were killed. A second soldier was injured and evacuated. Thick black smoke poured over the area from an oil tanker set alight in the attack.

The deaths came a day after four U.S. Marines were killed in a vehicle accident near Camp Fallujah in western Iraq. More than 875 service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.

Extended deadline

Militants from a group calling itself “The Islamic Army of Iraq — Khaled bin Al-Waleed Brigade” initially gave the Philippines until Sunday night to agree to withdraw its 51-member peacekeeping force by July 20 — a month ahead of schedule. The group threatened to kill truck driver Angelo dela Cruz if the Philippines did not comply.

The group extended the deadline by two days, until Tuesday, a Philippines government officials said early today.

“There are good signals that the extension of the deadline has been given (for) another 48 hours,” Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas told ABS-CBN TV from Dubai, where she was accompanying dela Cruz’s wife and brother en route to Baghdad.

The extension came hours after the government in Manilla rejected the militants’ ultimatum.

Dan Mandane and Juvy Yutuc, cousins of Angelo dela Cruz, the Fiipino worker abducted by Iraqi militants, offer a prayer for his safety as the deadline set by his abductors elapsed early this morning in a village in Pampanga, north of Manila. Iraqi militants threatened to behead their captives unless the government pull out its troops in Iraq.

“In line with our commitment to the free people of Iraq, we reiterate our plan to return our humanitarian contingent as scheduled on Aug. 20, 2004,” Foreign Secretary Delia Albert told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting late Sunday.

Dela Cruz’s wife and brother were heading to Baghdad, Albert said, and the government remained hopeful he would be released.

Philippine negotiators were working through mediators Sunday to try to free dela Cruz, a diplomat in Baghdad with knowledge of the situation said.

In a video purportedly from the militants broadcast Sunday on the Arab television station Al-Arabiya, a masked man holding a sword said that if the Philippines complies, dela Cruz will no longer be a hostage but will be held as a protected prisoner of war. After Filipino troops leave, he would be released, the man said.

Bulgarian hostages

A deadline for two other hostages — Bulgarian truck drivers held by a separate group demanding the release of all Iraqi detainees — expired Saturday morning. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi said Sunday he had unconfirmed information the two were alive.

At a news conference in Bulgaria, Pasi appealed to the hostage takers, saying Islam calls for “mercy for the poor, the hungry and the sick.” He said one hostage, Georgi Lazov, had diabetes, while the other, Ivaylo Kepov, had suffered a stroke.

The group holding the Bulgarians, the Tawhid and Jihad movement linked to Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also claimed responsibility Sunday for an attack Thursday on a military headquarters in the city of Samarra that killed five U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi National Guardsman.

Border patrol

To prevent the infiltration of foreign fighters, Syria and Iraq agreed to set up a special force to patrol their 360-mile shared border, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said Sunday in Damascus, Syria, after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In other developments, Iraq’s national security adviser, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, said Sunday the country would never again threaten its neighbors and would honor the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as well as international agreements banning the use of chemical and biological weapons.

“Iraq officially declares it will be a country free of any weapons of mass destruction,” al-Rubaie told reporters during a news conference. “Iraq will never again resort to threatening its neighbors, as Saddam did.”

Saddam’s alleged possession of such weapons was one of President Bush’s declared reasons for invading Iraq last year. The hunt for weapons of mass destruction has proved largely unsuccessful.

Demonstrations

Demonstrators, some supporting Saddam’s ousted regime, others opposed to it, took to the streets of Iraq on Sunday.

In Baqouba north of Baghdad, about 100 people marched through the shopping district, chanting pro-Saddam slogans, waving rifles and carrying posters of the former leader. Meanwhile, demonstrators in Baghdad held a mock trial and execution of Saddam, hoisting an effigy from a hangman’s noose setting it on fire.

Also Sunday, Islamic militants in Baghdad opened fire on a downtown shop selling alcohol, destroying the merchandise and kidnapping an employee, witnesses said.

“They came in two cars and shouted “God is Great,” as they opened fire,” said Rafid Fadil, a witness.