Coalition troops kill nine guerrillas, the biggest toll for more than a month, in scattered action over northern Iraq in the past 24 hours.

The patrol killed 16 guerrillas and suffered two dead and three wounded.

By Friday morning, the Government said that it had killed 676 guerrillas and wounded 322.

By the end of 1976 they killed 1,257 guerrillas that year alone.

In those two encounters, the soldiers killed 15 guerrillas and captured a 90-millimeter recoilless rifle.

The army said it killed six guerrillas and reported six wounded on its side in the attack on Thursday.

The military also says it has killed 2,240 guerrillas in the last 18 months.

In official figures made public today, the Government asserted that its forces had killed 1,050 guerrillas, wounded 564, and captured 164.

The ground offensive was follow by an airforce attack, killing 20 guerrillas, unofficial sources said.

During that same period, Israeli forces killed 80 Lebanese guerrillas in five weeks.