US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a multi-pronged assault to retake the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, marking the next phase in the country's war against Islamic State.

Iraqi intelligence officials have foiled an attempt by Islamic State to attack revered Shiite shrines and the sect's spiritual leader.

Islamic State has struck back as Iraqi forces close in on victory in Mosul, sending women suicide bombers to target soldiers as the battle for the country's second-largest city nears its end.

Several attacks in and around Baghdad have killed at least 27 people on a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi officials said yesterday that an airstrike wounded the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such a strike or al-Baghdadi being wounded.

An airstrike has wounded the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to Iraqi officials.

US fighter jets and bombers have pounded Islamic State targets in both Syria and Iraq.

US fighter jets and bombers have pounded Islamic State targets, striking the militants in both Syria and Iraq.

Sunni fighters led by an al-Qaeda breakaway group expanded their offensive in a volatile western province, capturing three strategic towns and the first border crossing with Syria to fall on the Iraqi side.

Syrian President Bashar al- Assad made his first appearance yesterday since a bomb killed some of his top lieutenants, looking calm and composed on state TV, even as his forces turned parts of Damascus into combat zones and rebels seized two of the country’s border crossings.

Syrian president Bashar Assad made his first appearance today since the bomb blast which killed some of his top lieutenants.

Two suicide bombers targeting members of a government-backed, anti-al Qaida militia struck within hours of each other in Iraq today, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens more.

Iraq sent police reinforcements today to the Syrian border after last weekend’s US raid against an alleged al-Qaida hideout in Syria raised tension between the two countries, officials said.

America was accused of “terrorism” today after its special forces raided alleged al-Qaida fighters sheltering inside the supposed safety of Syria.

The bullet-riddled body of a kidnapped Iraqi mayor was found dumped on a road today, police and morgue officials said.

A pair of suicide bombers detonated explosives among shoppers in a crowded outdoor market in a Shiite city south of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 73 people and wounding 163, police said.

A roadside bomb ripped through a bus today killing 10 people working for an organisation opposed to the Iranian regime, police said.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S chief lawyer yesterday said that the deposed Iraqi president wanted British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer today said that the deposed Iraqi president wanted British prime minister Tony Blair and US president George Bush tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

Saddam Hussein’s lawyer blamed US-led “occupation forces” today for the killing of a second colleague in the trial and urged Arab leaders to “shoulder their responsibility” to combat disorder here that threatens the proceeding.

US Air Force jets destroyed a building near Iraq’s border with Syria today where al-Qaida insurgents hid weapons, the US military said.

The American military launched a major new offensive today, involving about 2,500 Marines, soldiers and sailors near the Syrian border, aimed at destroying an al-Qaida in Iraq network.

BOMB blasts killed six US Marines in western Iraq yesterday and US forces killed 29 militants in offensives aimed at uprooting al-Qaida insurgents ahead of the country’s vote on a new constitution.

US and Iraqi troops swept into the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar early today, conducting house-to-house searches and battering down walls with armoured vehicles in a second bid to clean the city of militant fighters.

Heavy fighting broke out in western Iraq today between pro and anti-government tribes, leaving at least 35 people dead from both sides.

A suicide car bomb killed an Iraqi Shiite politician and three others near Baghdad as they were heading to parliament today, an attack likely to further fuel tensions between the minority Sunni Arabs and the country’s Shiite majority.

More than 1,000 US troops and Iraqi forces launched Operation Sword today in a bid to crush insurgents and foreign fighters in western Iraq, making it the third major offensive in the area in recent weeks.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of morning roll call today outside traffic police headquarters in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 20 and wounding 50 more, police said.

Militants killed five US Marines, and authorities found 21 bodies near the Syrian border, where American and Iraqi troops bore down in two recent major operations aimed at crushing a tenacious insurgency.

Insurgents in western Iraq killed five US Marines and sliced the heads off three Iraqis, part of a group of 21 men whose bodies were found dumped in the desert near the Syrian border after being gagged and shot.

At least 17 bodies have been found scattered in separate locations near a town close to the Syrian border that is considered an insurgent hotbed, with one group of 11 shot in the head and another beheaded.

Iraqi officials said today that May’s increase in militant attacks has resulted in more Iraqis killed than the previous month. A suicide car bombing, the most popular method of killing in that same period, wounded 15 Iraqis at the main checkpoint to Baghdad’s International Airport.

Separate air crashes killed four American and four Italian troops, officials said today, and the governor of Anbar province was killed during clashes between US forces and the insurgents who abducted him three weeks ago.

ABOUT 1,000 US Marines, sailors and soldiers encircled the Iraqi city of Haditha in the troubled Anbar province early yesterday, launching the second major anti-insurgent operation in this vast western region in less than a month.

Gunmen freed the kidnapped governor of Iraq’s western Anbar province today after US troops ended a week-long offensive in the region, relatives and a government official said.

MILITANTS assassinated a general and a colonel and a car bomb exploded near a busy market in Baghdad yesterday, part of a wave of attacks that killed at least 21 Iraqis and wounded more than 70, authorities said.

US FORCES hunting down followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist pushed into a lawless region north of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border yesterday.

Gunmen have kidnapped the governor of Iraq’s western Anbar province and told his family he would be released when US forces withdraw from Qaim, the site of a major new offensive against followers of Iraq’s most wanted militant, relatives said today.

AMERICAN troops backed by helicopters and war planes have launched a major offensive against insurgents in a remote desert area near the Syrian border.

American troops backed by helicopters and war planes have launched a major offensive against insurgents in a remote desert area near the Syrian border, and about 75 militants were killed in the first 24 hours, the US military said.

IRAQ’S parliament approved six new ministers yesterday, hoping to fill the political void that has stoked the insurgency, but one minister turned down the job, leaving the Cabinet still incomplete three months after polls.

Coalition forces killed six insurgents in raids targeting the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near the Syrian border today, the US military said.

Coalition soldiers fought suspected insurgents near a Syrian border town in a battle that killed 12 militants, injured a six-year-old girl and wounded six coalition soldiers, the US military said today.

AT least 17 Iraqis were killed yesterday in a series of explosions that targeted police and US forces.

At least 17 Iraqis were killed today in a series of explosions that targeted police and US forces.

AMERICAN Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered a terse warning to Iraq's new leaders yesterday, urging them to avoid political purges that could lead to charges of corruption in the new government.

The leaders of Iraq’s emerging new government must not allow “turbulence or incompetence or corruption” to slow or foil progress toward building democracy and defeating the insurgency, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

A US contractor was kidnapped today in the Baghdad area, the latest in a string of abductions in the area.

Gunmen shot dead five policemen in a drive-by shooting in the Iraqi capital today, one day after authorities said they’d found dozens of corpses – some bullet-riddled, others beheaded – at two sites in the insurgent-wracked country.

IRAQI officials have found 41 bullet-riddled or beheaded bodies at two sites and they said yesterday they believe some of the corpses are Iraqi soldiers kidnapped and killed by insurgents.