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.

FOUR American and four Italian military personnel were killed in separate aircraft crashes, military officials said yesterday, as Iraq’s prime minister condemned the arrest of a top Sunni political leader by US troops.

TWO suicide bombers blew themselves up yesterday in a crowd of police officers south of Baghdad, killing up to 30 people and wounding dozens, while US forces briefly detained a Sunni political leader on the second day of an Iraqi-led security sweep in the capital.

The leader of Iraq’s top Sunni party has been released after being mistakenly detained earlier today by US forces, the American military said.

IRAQI security forces launched a high-profile crackdown targeting terrorists in Baghdad yesterday as insurgents hit back with suicide bombings and ambushes that killed at least 17 people.

Iraqi security forces launched a high-profile crackdown targeting terrorists in Baghdad today as insurgents hit back with suicide bombings and ambushes that killed at least 17 people.

A British soldier was killed and others were injured when a British military convoy came under attack in southern Iraq.

Wisam Younis’ sole ambition in life, he said, is to kill Americans. So he expressed surprise when he discovered that his car bomb had killed eight Iraqis and wounded more than 80 outside a Baghdad restaurant.

THE Iraqi government is preparing to ring Baghdad with tens of thousands of security forces to curb the rampant insurgency.

Two US soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down and crashed in central Iraq, the military said today, as the government prepared to ring Baghdad with tens of thousands of security forces to curb the rampant insurgency.

Iraq announced plans to deploy 40,000 police and soldiers in the capital Baghdad and ring the city with hundreds of checkpoints “like a bracelet” in the largest show of Iraqi force since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

THE Iraqi government said yesterday a security cordon of 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police will ring Baghdad starting next week in what it dubbed Operation Lightning.