Baghdad, Iraq ? U.S. troops battled arms smugglers and fighters near the Iraqi town of Qaim along the Syrian border Tuesday, killing an unknown number of foreign insurgents, the U.S. military said. Local hospital officials reported at least nine people killed in clashes in the same area, and said they believed the dead were civilians.

The raids came as separate car bombs in two northern cities killed a total of 10 people, and as the Iraqi government claimed to have captured a former member of Saddam Hussein’s regime at a farm northeast of Baghdad.

Insurgents opened fire when the U.S. troops began their raid on the smuggling ring Tuesday, and several militants, including at least one suicide bomber, were killed, the U.S. military said in a statement. No Americans were injured, it said.

Residents reported violent clashes before dawn Tuesday in and around Qaim, although it was unclear if the violence was related to the raid.

The Iraqi government claimed to have captured a former member of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani. The government said al-Mashadani was the leader of the military bureau in Baghdad under Saddam and it accused him of being “among the main facilitators of many terrorist attacks in Iraq.”

“Al-Mashadani is believed to be personally responsible for coordinating and funding attacks against the Iraqi people,” the statement said.

U.S. officials did not have any information.

Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, meanwhile, said his country wanted to pull its troops out of Iraq in the first few weeks of 2006, the latest blow to the U.S.-led coalition.

His announcement came as a suicide car bomber in the northern city of Mosul killed five civilians and injured four others, underlining the challenges facing Iraqi security forces being groomed to take over from multinational troops.

In nearby Talafar, a car bomb killed five people and wounded eight the U.S. military said.