Two Israeli soldiers have come forward to describe how they took part in what they say was an officially ordered "revenge" operation to kill Palestinian police officers ­ among them several unarmed men.

In graphic testimony, one soldier has confessed that he "really enjoyed" a chase in which he shot an unarmed Palestinian in the head who was trying to escape during a series of reprisal raids ordered the day after the killing of six Israeli soldiers in an ambush by militant gunmen three years ago.

In what may be the first inside account of such an operation, the soldiers from two reconnaissance units say they were among troops ordered by their commanders to "liquidate" the police officers at a series of Palestinian West Bank checkpoints even though they were given no evidence they had been involved in the killing of the Israelis.

The raids were among a series of ground and air attacks which, in all, killed 15 Palestinians ­ 12 of them policemen­ in and around Nablus and Ramallah 24 hours after the six Israeli soldiers were killed at a military post in the village of Ein Arik, west of Ramallah, at the height of the intifada.

One soldier, who took part in the attack on a Palestinian post at Deir es Sudan said they had lain in wait after finding the position empty when they arrived in the middle of the night.

"The idea was simply to kill them all. Whenever they arrived, we would kill them, regardless whether [they were]armed or not. If they were Palestinian policemen, they were to be shot. The order was given and our six opened fire."

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three suicide car bombings killed 17 people in northern Iraq on Thursday, including a top municipal council leader and a bodyguard of Iraq's Kurdish deputy prime minister, police said. Continuing violence during the past days has also claimed the lives of three children, a U.S. soldier and a Sunni Muslim cleric, underscoring the rampant, random nature of an insurgency that has killed more than 780 people since the April 28 announcement of Iraq's new Shiite-led government.

Kandahar - A suicide attack at the funeral of a key anti-Taliban cleric on Wednesday killed at least 20 people including one of Afghanistan's top policemen and wounded 52.

Authorities said the bomber was linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, who was sheltered by the Islamic Taliban before they were ousted, three and a half years ago.

The attack was the worst in Afghanistan this year and one of the most serious since the fall of the Taliban, who claimed Kandahar as their birthplace and who had stepped up attacks in recent months.