Masked gunmen stopped two minivans carrying students north of Baghdad, ordered the passengers off, separated Shiites from Sunni Arabs, and killed the 21 Shiites “in the name of Islam", a witness said.

Gunmen killed 21 people, including a dozen students, after they dragged them off buses north-east of Baghdad.

More than 1,000 protesters burned a British flag and the regional administration in Iraq’s main southern province severed all ties with British authorities over video footage showing British soldiers allegedly beating and kicking Iraqi youths.

More than 1,000 protesters burned a British flag today and the regional administration in Iraq’s main southern province severed all ties with British authorities over video footage showing British soldiers beating and kicking Iraqi youths two years ago.

Anger over the alleged abuse of Iraqis by British forces prompted Basra Provincial Council to sever relations with the British on Tuesday, while two purported victims demanded compensation from London.

Basra’s provincial council today demanded the withdrawal of Denmark’s 530-member military contingent from southern Iraq unless the Danish government apologises for the publication of the contentious Prophet Mohammed caricatures.

Basra provincial council has suspended relations with the British over the alleged 2004 abuse of Iraqis by British soldiers in southern Iraq, a British military spokesman said today.

British troops today detained several police officers among more than a dozen Iraqis linked to a spate of killings, bombings and kidnappings in the southern city of Basra.

Iraqi troops will take over security at Baghdad Airport, replacing the British company which stopped working today in a pay dispute with the government, a top Iraqi official said.

A civilian convoy was hit by a roadside bomb today in southern Basra, police and British officials said.

US military officials and representatives of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held talks today aimed at reducing violence in the restive Baghdad slum of Sadr City, a day after clashes there killed 10 people, officials said.

The British government was tonight under pressure to reveal how long it has known about claims of British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Kidnappers are holding an American soldier hostage in Iraq, it was reported tonight.

The governor’s office in the Iraqi city of Basra has been taken over in protest at coalition actions against radical Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Reports of US-led military advances in Baghdad and Basra helped keep London’s leading shares hold firmly in positive territory today as the FTSE 100 Index targeted its fifth day of gains.

Fresh reports from Basra suggest that surrender negotiations are underway between local military leaders and US commanders.

COALITION forces were last night poised to take the strategic city of Basra as the war against Saddam Hussein looked like entering a new phase.