Hundreds of Iraqi police and army troops fanned out across Baghdad yesterday, setting up checkpoints and fortifying polling stations with barbed wire and blast barriers two days ahead of a historic constitutional referendum.

IRAQ prepared to seal itself off from the outside world yesterday and clamp down on movement around the country to ward off threats from insurgents bent on wrecking a referendum on a new constitution.

US and Iraqi forces stepped up security across Iraq today and prepared to impose an overnight curfew in an effort to reduce insurgent attacks aimed at wrecking this weekend’s constitutional referendum.

ROCK legend Jimi Hendrix pretended he was gay to get out of the US Army, a new biography reveals.

A US Army investigation found systematic abuse and possible torture of Iraqi prisoners at a base near the northern city of Mosul, just as top military officials became aware of abuse allegations at Abu Ghraib, documents show.

An audio broadcast purportedly made by Saddam Hussein told Iraqis today to step up their resistance to the US-led occupation, saying the United States and its allies misjudged the difficulty of occupying Iraq.

Three American soldiers have been killed in northern Iraq, a US military spokeswoman said today.

A US ARMOURED force punched into the heart of Baghdad yesterday and established a stronghold in one of President Saddam Hussein’s palaces, while troops in central Iraq found a cache of suspected Iraqi chemical weapons.

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Chris Tomlinson US TROOPS seized Baghdad’s international airport last night after pushing through the outskirts of the darkened capital.

A general from Saddam Hussein’s army has been captured in southern Iraq and is being pressed to provide strategic information, British officers said today.

Five US soldiers who were injured in the war in Iraq were brought to a hospital in western Germany today for treatment.

A US soldier was detained yesterday on suspicion of throwing grenades into three tents at a 101st Airborne command centre in Kuwait, killing one fellow serviceman and wounding 13, three of them seriously.

One soldier was killed and 13 injured today when grenades exploded at a US 101st Airborne Division command tent in Kuwait. A US soldier was detained as a suspect in the attack, the Army said.

Allied forces combed through the rubble of smashed caves in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan today, searching for information about the al-Qaida fighters who had sought refuge there.

US bombers blasted the cavernous mountains of eastern Afghanistan for a third day today, pressing a new offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters believed to be regrouping in the area.

A US Army helicopter has made a hard landing in eastern Afghanistan, injuring 14 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division.