Iran has invited the Iraqi and Syrian presidents to Tehran for a weekend summit with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to thrash out ways to cooperate in curbing violence in Iraq, four key politicians said today.

THE Shi’ite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of a southern Iraqi city yesterday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies.

HUMAN rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former UN human rights chief in Iraq said yesterday.

THOUSANDS of angry Shi’ites rallied yesterday in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum against a spree of attacks that killed almost 200 people and to protest what they claim was American backing for Sunni Arabs politicians who have supported insurgent groups.

Thousands of angry Shiites today rallied in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum against a spree of attacks that killed almost 200 people and to protest what they claim was American backing for Sunni Arabs politicians who have supported insurgent groups.

The Iraqi government today urged people to vote in next week’s constitutional referendum, condemning insurgent groups for demanding a boycott and for killing civilians in an effort to wreck the ballot.

A suicide car bomb exploded today outside an apartment building used by the Badr Brigade, a Shiite militia linked to one of the main parties in the Iraqi government, killing at least one person and wounding three, police said.

The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (pictured) today called on his followers to end clashes with Shiite rivals so stalled talks on a new constitution can proceed.

Kidnappers of Egypt’s top diplomat in Iraq threatened to kill him because today on an al-Qaida-linked website.

Gunmen killed four policemen and wounded at least nine more in separate attacks in Baghdad today. The reputed leader of al Qaida in Iraq said the country’s security forces were as great an enemy as the Americans and brushed aside calls to abandon the insurgency.

One Iraqi was killed and six others were injured when US soldiers opened fire after being attacked in two separate incidents today.

THE top US commander in Iraq said yesterday that he needs more international forces to deal with an array of potential security threats, including al-Qaida terrorists, Iranian fighters and clashes between ethnic and religious militias.

The US has handed military control over a huge swathe of Iraq to a Polish commander during a ceremony in the ruins of an amphitheatre built by Alexander the Great near Babylon.

The leader of the largest Shiite Muslim group that opposed Saddam Hussein today called for a democratic government to rule Iraq.

The leader of the largest Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim group opposed to Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq today after two decades in exile, arriving to expectations that he will figure prominently in the future of the country he was kept from for so long.