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BAGHDAD — At least 17 American military personnel were killed in gunbattles or roadside bombings in Iraq over a three-day period, including eight soldiers killed Monday in Baghdad, the U.S. command announced.

Most of the deaths occurred in Baghdad or Anbar province. The eight deaths in Baghdad were the most in the capital in a day since July 2005.

As of Tuesday, at least 2,730 members of the U.S. military have died from all causes since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 2,163 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

In other developments:

Iraqi authorities have taken a brigade of up to 700 policemen out of service and put members under investigation for "possible complicity" with death squads following a mass kidnapping earlier this week, the U.S. military said today.

A series of bombs went off in rapid succession today in a shopping district in a mainly Christian neighborhood of Baghdad, killing 16 people and wounding 87, police said. The dead were among 26 people killed in attacks across Iraq.

A car bomb exploded today outside the Iraqi army headquarters in the town of Ramadi, an insurgent hot spot west of Baghdad, police said, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

In the New Baghdad area, a bomb hit a convoy carrying the Iraqi industry minister. Three police guards were killed and nine were wounded, but the minister was not harmed, police said.

At least 53 people were killed across Iraq Tuesday as a suicide bomber unleashed a blast in a Baghdad fish market and two Shiite families were found slain north of the capital.

Monday's toll represented one of the highest overall body counts for U.S. troops in Iraq in the past year. In late August, nine soldiers and a Marine were killed in a single day. But before that, the last time eight or more soldiers were killed in hostile action was last November.

Four of the soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack; four others were killed by small-arms fire in separate incidents.

"Obviously this was a tragic day, with eight killed in 24 hours," military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said Tuesday.

The deadly day set back efforts by U.S. and Iraqi troops to tame the sectarian violence that continues to besiege the capital. Since August, the military has made securing Baghdad a priority, pouring in additional troops and conducting neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweeps of some of the most dangerous areas.

But the violence has continued, spiking over the last week with the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Military officials said last week that suicide bombings in Baghdad were at a record.

Fierce fighting also continues between Marines and Sunni insurgents in Anbar province.

The U.S. military also announced today that one soldier was killed Tuesday in a shooting in Baghdad, while a second died Tuesday from gunfire in the northern city of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi police officers were decommissioned following a kidnapping Sunday when gunmen stormed a frozen food plant in Baghdad's Amil district, abducted 24 workers and shot two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found hours later but the fate of the others remains unknown.

The action appeared aimed at signaling a new seriousness in tackling police collusion with militias at a time when the government is under increased pressure to put an end to the Shiite-Sunni violence that has killed thousands this year and threatened to tear Iraq apart.

Sunni leaders blamed Shiite militias for the kidnapping and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.