Two car bombs detonated in a Baghdad neighbourhood today, killing at least eight people.

Militants struck back in their first major blow against a US-led security clampdown in Baghdad with car bombings that killed at least 63 people and left scores injured.

US officials are investigating allegations that an Iraqi politician took part in the 1983 bombing of the US and French embassies in Kuwait and is a conduit for Iranian weapons and supplies smuggled to Shiite militias, a spokesman said today.

Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has reportedly agreed to allow supporters to rejoin the Iraqi government after a three-week boycott.

Revenge-seeking militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left prayers and burned them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking the Iraqi capital.

Parliament approved Iraq’s new national unity government today, achieving a goal it is hoped will reduce widespread violence so that allied forces can eventually go home. But as the legislators met, at least 27 people were killed and 68 wounded in a series of attacks.

Seven car bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital Baghdad today, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, as politicians met to try to finalise a new Cabinet.