THREE Iraqis were arrested yesterday over the abduction of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was killed last year.

The arrests came after a raid on a house south of Baghdad yesterday by US and Iraqi forces, in which a number of suspects were detained - five of which confessed to a role in the death of Mrs Hassan, according to an intelligence officer at the Interior Ministry.

Mrs Hassan, 59, the director of Care International in Iraq, was kidnapped on her way to work in Baghdad on October 19.

Her captors later issued videos showing her pleading for Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq and calling for the release of female Iraqi prisoners.

On November 16, the Arab television station Al-Jazeera said it had received a video showing a hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.

British officials said they believed the woman in the video was Mrs Hassan, and her family said they believed she was dead. However, no body was recovered.

Mrs Hassan, who also held Irish and Iraqi citizenship, had lived in Iraq for 30 years and was married to an Iraqi. She was renowned for her work distributing food, medicine and supplies to Iraqis suffering under the sanctions of the 1990s.

A spokeswoman said of the raid on the house: ''Three Iraqis are in custody in connection with Margaret Hassan.

''The arrests were made after a sweep of an area of insurgents by the US and Iraqi forces are investigations are ongoing.''

A number of articles linked to Mrs Hassan were also recovered during the raid. An Iraqi official said they included a purse, a woman's shirts and trousers, and documents containing the CARE logo signed by Mrs Hassan.

''We believe this is the first evidence that's been found regarding her since her death,'' said a spokesman for the British Embassy in Baghdad.

He added that the items which had been recovered provided a "direct link" to the murdered care worker.

He said: "The investigation is ongoing and there could be further arrests."

British authorities were carrying out further investigations and liaising with US and Iraqi authorities, he said.

The US military confirmed that a number of suspects had been detained, but provided no further details.

Care International said last night it had no comment.

Meanwhile, insurgents staged a third successive day of attacks in Iraq yesterday, including ambushes, car bombs and a drive-by shooting, killing nine Iraqis and wounding 21.

It raised the death toll from attacks that began in Iraq on Friday to at least 74.

On Saturday, at least 17 Iraqis and one US soldier were killed across the country.

Five police were killed and one wounded yesterday in an ambush on a small road near Diala Bridge, in eastern Baghdad.

Later, a car bomb exploded in Baghdad, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding 12.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, insurgents in three parked cars opened fire with hand guns on a police patrol, wounding four, while a roadside bomb exploded on a main road north of Hillah, south of Baghdad, wounding four civilians.

A suicide car bomb also exploded at the funeral for a Kurdish official in northern Iraq, killing 20 Iraqis and wounding more than 30.

Australian Douglas Wood, 63, a US resident working on reconstruction projects, was also kidnapped by militants, and a video tape was released showing him appealing for US, UK and Australian forces to be withdrawn if his life was to be saved. A sign on the tape carried the name of the militant group, the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq.