Most troops stationed at the base are American but there are small contingents from other countries. The military said those wounded in Wednesday's attack included two "third-country nationals," meaning they were not Americans or Iraqis.

The top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said 107 mm rockets were used. A number of other rockets also were found at the launching site, he said, adding the military had strong leads about who was behind the attack.

Petraeus did not elaborate. But a U.S. military official said the rockets were fired from an abandoned school nearby.

U.S. bases in Iraq frequently face rocket or mortar attacks, but Camp Victory is well-entrenched on the capital's western outskirts and such heavy casualties are rare.

On Sept. 11, one person was killed and 11 were wounded in a rocket attack on the complex, which includes lakeside palaces formerly used by Saddam Hussein that now house the headquarters of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq. The U.S. military said a 240 mm rocket provided to Shiite extremists by Iran was used in that attack.

By contrast, the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which houses the American and British embassies and the Iraqi government headquarters in central Baghdad, is far more vulnerable and has faced a series of deadly strikes in recent months.

U.S. commanders have said training and weapons provided by Tehran is helping militants to improve their aim.

In violence Thursday, a suicide car bomber struck a market in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 50. The apparent target of the attack was a three-car police convoy carrying the traffic police chief and his guards, police said. Three of the policemen were among the dead and the chief was wounded.

Clashes also broke out between al-Qaida gunmen and police at checkpoints near Baqouba, killing at least one officer and wounding two, according to a police official who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. One gunman also was killed and several others fled, police said.

Just east of Baqouba, suspected al-Qaida gunmen reportedly took control of five Sunni villages, killing six people and wounding five, another police official said. The attacks, which began Wednesday evening and continued until Thursday morning, happened two days after locals, supported by U.S. forces, had cleared the villages of insurgents, the official said.

Elsewhere in Diyala province, gunmen killed five Iraqi civilians and wounded four in a morning attack on a minibus going from Khalis to Kirkuk, police said. Khalis is about 50 miles north of Baghdad. An ophthalmologist, the son of the local head of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, also was shot to death in Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The U.S. military released the names of three al-Qaida members killed in an airstrike Wednesday in western Baghdad. The three men — Abu Rami, Ammar Fadhil Kadhim and Fadil Salman, who is also known as Abu Ra'ad — were targeted for killing Abu Bilal, an imam who had been preaching against al-Qaida, the military said.

The insurgents planted four bombs in and around Bilal's house, one of which detonated. The men then entered Bilal's house, killing him and wounding his wife. Bilal's nephew killed two of the insurgents before the group fled, the military said.

U.S. troops pursued the militants as they assembled on a field west of Baghdad. The soldiers called in air support, which killed 13 mem###ilians by U.S.-hired contractors, and they urged U.S. authorities to hold private security firms accountable for unjustified killings of Iraqis.

"For us, it's a human rights issue," said Ivana Vuco, a human rights officer with the U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq. "We will monitor the allegations of killings by security contractors and look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed. "

Said Arikat, the U.N. mission spokesman, urged the U.S. government to hold those involved in indiscriminate gunning down of Iraqis "to the bar, to apply the rules of engagement and prosecute them."

On Wednesday, Iraqi officials demanded answers of an Australian-owned security company blamed in the killing of two Iraqi Christian women amid rising calls for a crackdown on private bodyguards used by the U.S. government.

The scrutiny of Unity Resources Group began a day after its guards allegedly gunned down the two women in their car, and less than a month after 17 Iraqis died in a hail of bullets fired by Blackwater USA contractors at a busy Baghdad intersection.

Unity chief operating officer Michael Priddin said the guards feared a suicide attack and fired only after issuing several warnings. Blackwater has said its employees were responding to an armed attack.

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