BAGHDAD, Iraq — A homicide car bomber blasted an American convoy north of Baghdad and U.S. troops battled insurgents west of the capital Wednesday as a wave of violence across Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland killed at least 27 people.

American forces pursued their search-and-destroy mission against the remaining holdouts in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah (search), and to the north, American forces pressed an offensive to reclaim part of the city of Mosul from militants.

November became one of Iraq's bloodiest months as the U.S. death toll in the war in Iraq reached 1,214, according to figures released by the Defense Department.

On Wednesday, a homicide attacker drove his bomb-laden car into a U.S. convoy during fierce fighting in the town of Beiji, 155 miles north of the Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 12, including three American soldiers. Another attack on a convoy of civilian contractors in Beiji caused no casualties.

Elsewhere, a three-hour gunbattle between militants and U.S. forces after nightfall left seven people dead and 13 hurt in Ramadi, a city west of Fallujah.

Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortar and Kalashnikov rifles at American forces in the city center, Zayout district and along the main highway in town, said Abdel Karim al-Hiti of Ramadi General Hospital

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