BAGHDAD, April 24 (Reuters) - Gunmen wearing uniforms of the Iraqi army raided a neighbourhood in the volatile Iraqi city of Baquba on Tuesday, killing six people, wounding 15 and burning several homes, police said.

The attack took place a day after a suicide car bomber killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 others at a military outpost near Baquba in one of the worst attacks on American ground forces since the invasion in 2003.

In a separate attack also on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a gathering of senior police officials in Baquba, killing 10 policemen, including the city's police chief.

Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, is the capital of Diyala province, a region with a mixed population of Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites and where U.S. forces are engaged in fierce fighting with entrenched insurgents and al Qaeda militants.

Tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have been deployed in Baghdad since February to curb violence in the capital but that has prompted insurgents to focus their attacks more on provinces outside the capital.

U.S. commanders in March sent 1,000 extra combat troops to Diyala, which was seen a recent spike of violence.

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