More violence struck Iraq ahead of the anniversary on Saturday of the start of the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein: a deadly car bomb exploded in a southern city, three Iraqi journalists died in a drive-by shooting and three US soldiers perished in mortar attacks.

A suicide bomber blew up his car as a British military patrol passed by in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on today, killing himself and three civilians, police said.

A terror attack on a five-storey Baghdad hotel which left 17 people dead was a suicide bombing and may have hit the wrong target, the US military said today.