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BAGHDAD -- A suicide car bomb detonated outside the gates of a Marine base in western Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 16 Iraqi police officers and wounding 40 others at a police checkpoint.

Other bloody attacks on Iraqis occurred in northern Iraq cities including Mosul, where two truck drivers were killed. Meanwhile, U.S. Marines said they captured a top lieutenant of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an early morning raid in Fallujah and authorities reported successes in a weapons buy-back program in a volatile Baghdad neighborhood.

The deadly car bomb near Baghdadi, roughly 140 miles west of Baghdad, exploded around 7 a.m. local time outside the Al Asad Marine base, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. No Marines were injured in the blast, officials said.

Two truck drivers -- one Turkish and one Yugoslavian -- were killed and two others were wounded in the Mosul attack on a convoy. A survivor said the convoy had just delivered a shipment of biscuits to a U.S. military base and was heading back to Baghdad around noon when gunmen in a speeding BMW opened fire on them.

The incidents, part of a flurry of attacks against Iraqi and U.S. military targets, came as U.S. Marines continued a months-long series of strikes against suspected terrorist safe houses, meeting places and weapons storage sites in the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.

In a raid that occurred around 1:30 a.m. yesterday, Marines reported capturing a member of al-Zarqawi's "inner circle." Until recently, the individual was considered to be a minor player in the insurgent network. However, the death or capture of a number of terrorist suspects in U.S. attacks had elevated the prisoner to the position of a senior leader, according to a U.S. military statement.

U.S. military officials insist that al-Zarqawi is behind many of the "most heinous suicide bombings, mortar attacks, kidnappings and shootings that have claimed hundreds of Iraqi lives," according a statement released yesterday. "This past week, a group led by al-Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and said it was in contact with al-Qaida over operations in Iraq."

U.S. efforts to destroy al-Zarqawi's network and wrest control of Fallujah before national elections planned for January were the basis of a U.S. request to move 850 British troops from Iraq's South to an area south of Baghdad. The troop movement, which was approved this week, will free up U.S. forces for a planned offensive in Fallujah.

In Baghdad yesterday, several explosions were heard including one from a rocket that slammed into the offices of the Iraqi Bar Association, blowing a hole in the ceiling and spreading glass and rubble in all directions. The impact occurred at roughly 10:30 a.m., in the upscale Mansour district, an Iraqi National Guard officer said. Officials suspect the missile was intended to hit a nearby National Guard headquarters.

Also yesterday, officials announced that a weeklong weapons buy-back program in the Sadr City neighborhood, a longtime hub of violence since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year, has led to the gathering of more than 9,000 weapons, including 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 2,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 1,000 grenade launchers. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said that $5 million had been spent on the buy-back program.

Both U.S. and Iraqi officials said they were cautiously optimistic about the success of the weapons buy-back, which is part of an overall plan to restore peace and order to the volatile Shiite Muslim neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.

"We are hoping to expand this successful initiative to other cities around Iraq," Saleh said. "This gives a chance to all Iraqis who have unlicensed arms to trade them off for money."

Once the threat is reduced in Sadr City, U.S. officials plan to move in with tens of millions of dollars in water, sewer and other projects -- all held up due to violence. The $5 million paid for arms and ammunition in recent days contrasts to $1.35 million paid out during a U.S.-sponsored weapons buyback in Sadr City in May.

However, authorities noted that it was impossible to determine if the bulk of the weapons came from Sadr City or were turned in by weapons dealers and others from elsewhere in the capital and throughout Iraq.

And U.S. commanders cautioned that the next step -- the planned search of houses in Sadr City for weapons -- would be a better gauge of whether large caches of arms and weapons remain. Officials are also anxious to see the removal of some 1,000 roadside bombs said to be have been placed in the streets of Sadr City in an effort to thwart U.S. patrols.

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