Security incidents in Iraq, Jan. 18

Jan 18 (Reuters) - Following are security incidents in Iraq reported on Wednesday, Jan. 18 as of 1500 GMT.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed up to 10 Iraqis and kidnapped a Malawian engineer, and possibly his Madagascan colleague, in an attack on a private security convoy in Baghdad, officials and witnesses said.

SA'ADIYA - Five policemen were killed and nine wounded when a makeshift bomb went off near their patrol in the small town of Sa'adiya east of Baquba, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - At least one gunman was killed and two policemen wounded in a failed attempt to seize a police station in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - An Oil Ministry security officer was seriously wounded on Tuesday when gunmen ambushed his car in Baghdad, killing his driver and seriously wounding one of his guards, the government said.

* BAGHDAD - A sister of Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabor was freed in Baghdad, two weeks after gunmen attacked her convoy in the capital and kidnapped her, Interior Ministry sources said.

* NEAR TAL AFAR - Three suspected insurgents were killed in an air assault on Tuesday after being observed placing a roadside bomb near the town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Mohammed Sadagi al-Batah, a tribal leader, was shot dead along with his nephew and another person in Baghdad's Bayaa district, police said. Batah is a relative of the Iraqi defence minister.