Gunmen attacked two Sunni mosques today in Baghdad, fanning Iraq’s sectarian crisis, as US military officials confirmed three more US Marines died in action in separate attacks in western Iraq.

A mortar barrage followed minutes later by a car bomb struck Baghdad’s upscale Karradah district today, killing 31 people and wounding 153, police said.

A British military helicopter crashed in Basra today, and Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to at least one armoured vehicle that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias, police and witnesses said.