BAGHDAD, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Fifteen people were killed, including 10 suspected al Qaeda insurgents, in clashes with local security units in northern Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

The military said insurgents had attacked a compound set up by a U.S.-backed neighbourhood security unit near Sinjar, a small town 400 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad in Nineveh province.

It said five members of the neighbourhood unit, known by the U.S. military as concerned local citizens or CLCs, were killed and five wounded. The unit counter-attacked, killing 10 insurgents, the military said.

The neighbourhood units have spread across Iraq after they were formed by mainly Sunni Arab tribal leaders who turned against al Qaeda in western Anbar province in late 2006 and are credited for helping bring about sharp falls in violence.

They helped drive al Qaeda out of former strongholds in Anbar and around Baghdad. Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants have regrouped in Iraq's northern provinces, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a series of operations this year.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced a "decisive" final push against al Qaeda in Mosul, the Nineveh province capital, after a string of deadly attacks last month.

Nineveh police said fighting broke out before dawn but said the clashes were in two villages near the town of Tal Abta, south of Mosul, rather than near Sinjar to Mosul's west.

They said gunmen in 20 vehicles attacked the villages, killing four CLC members and a woman. Police also said 10 gunmen were killed but there was no immediate explanation for the apparent discrepancy in the location of the remote attacks.

Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, when a "surge" of 30,000 extra U.S. troops became fully deployed. (Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Sami Aboudi)

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