A suspected insurgent was killed today when a roadside bomb he was planting detonated prematurely north-east of Baghdad, the US military said.

US soldiers detained 14 Iraqis suspected of making deadly car bombs and leading militant cells in northern Iraq, the military said today.

The skies over Fallujah lit up from the flashes of air and artillery barrages as US troops launched an offensive to seize key insurgent strongholds in a city that became the major sanctuary for Islamic extremists who fought Marines to a standstill last April.

A body found in Iraq resembles a Japanese civilian taken hostage by Islamic militants and threatened with death, but the government has not yet positively identified it, a Japanese government official said today.

One 1st Infantry Division soldier has died from a non-combat injury at a base in Diyala province, the US military said today

American and Iraqi forces launched a major assault to regain control of the insurgent stronghold of Samarra today, trading gunfire with rebel fighters as they pushed toward the Iraqi city centre.

Heavy gunfire and explosions rocked Samarra today after US and Iraqi forces launched a major assault to regain control of the insurgent stronghold north of the capital.

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near a joint US-Iraqi checkpoint in Samarra today, killing three people and wounding seven others, including four US soldiers , the military said.

Iraqi authorities were conducting DNA tests to confirm the identity of Saddam Hussein’s former second-in-command, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, captured in northern Iraq today.

A car bomb exploded north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad today, killing two people and injuring four others, including a deputy provincial governor, police said.

Early-morning bombing by US warplanes on the largely Sunni city of Samarrah killed at least eight people, Iraqi hospital officials said today.

A huge explosion detonated by a suicide attacker in a bomb-laden lorry tore through central Baqouba today, killing 51 people and injuring scores more.

AMERICAN and Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents north of Baghdad early yesterday, killing 13 Iraqi militants, the US military said.

A roadside bomb exploded early today, killing one US 1st Infantry Division soldier and injuring six others north of the Iraqi capital, a US military spokesman said.

American troops have detained a senior commander of Iraq’s former Republican Guard, US forces said today.

Iraq authorities have forcibly removed members of a hardline Shiite militia from a building they were illegally occupying in Najaf, the US military said today.

THE kidnappers of a Philippine hostage in Iraq have extended by nine days their deadline for Manila to withdraw its troops or see him executed, a senior diplomat said yesterday.

A roadside bomb near the Iraqi city of Samarra killed two US soldiers and wounded three others today, the military said in a statement.

An Iraqi guardsman, three civilians and five US soldiers were killed when insurgents detonated a car bomb and levelled a military headquarters in the city of Samarra with a massive mortar barrage, the military said.

INSURGENTS bombarded a headquarters used by American troops and Iraqi forces with mortar rounds in the city of Samarra yesterday, destroying the building and killing five US soldiers and one Iraqi guardsman.

Two car bombs exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, killing 10 and injuring 100, the US military said.

Two car bombs have exploded in Iraq today, with at least five people killed, including a US soldier.

Iraqi Shiite militiamen fired several mortar shells at a US base in Najaf early today and at a city hall guarded by Bulgarian troops in another Shiite city.

Five US soldiers were killed and seven injured when two rockets slammed into a US base north of Baghdad, US military officials said.

Four US soldiers were killed and seven injured before dawn today when two rockets slammed into a US base north of Baghdad, US military officials said.

A car bomb has exploded near the main US base in the northern city of Tikrit, a US official said. At least three people were killed.

A ROADSIDE bomb injured three American soldiers yesterday near Fallujah, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four US contract workers in the city.

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four American contractors from their burning jeeps yesterday, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four foreign contractors – at least one an American – out of their burning cars today, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

A suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car outside the house of a police chief south of Baghdad today, killing himself and wounding seven others, officials said.

Four American soldiers died in two bomb explosions in Baghdad, the U.S.-led coalition said today.

American officials have received useful information from direct interrogation of Saddam Hussein, a senior military official in Iraq said today.

AN American soldier was killed and three wounded yesterday in separate roadside bombings which prompted a fierce eight-hour firefight where US attack aircraft, tanks and helicopters battled Iraqi resistance fighters.

Two US soldiers were killed in Iraq, the military said today.

America geared up for war yesterday with Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, warning the country's servicemen that they would be called on to vanquish "powerful and terrible enemies" in the months ahead.