A small plane strayed within three miles of the White House, leading to frantic evacuation of the Executive Mansion and the Capitol with military jets scrambling to intercept the aircraft and firing flares to steer it away.

A large explosion was heard in central Baghdad today in the vicinity of the headquarters of the US occupation authority.

Nine American troops were killed today when a Black Hawk helicopter on a medical mission went down in Iraq’s violent Sunni Triangle.

GUERRILLAS killed two American soldiers and wounded a third in an ambush in western Iraq yesterday in the bloodiest month of the war yet.

Insurgents killed two US paratroopers and wounded another west of Baghdad today as the US military cracked down on residents of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit after guerrillas apparently shot down a Black Hawk helicopter there.

The Colombian army has invaded the largest town in a Switzerland-sized safe haven ceded to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as part of a now-defunct peace process.