Bombs killed at least 40 people at markets in two Iraqi cities, hours after key MPs said seven Sunni Arab rebel groups had offered the government a conditional truce.

Four Russian embassy workers taken hostage by an al-Qaida in Iraq-linked militant group have been killed after Moscow failed to meet the organisation’s demand to pull troops out of Chechnya, according to an internet claim.

An al-Qaida-led insurgent group said in a website statement today that it had decided to kill four kidnapped Russian Embassy workers after a deadline for meeting its demands passed.

The new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed the two US soldiers abducted last week, an umbrella group for Iraqi insurgents said in a web statement posted today.

THE US Army has charged three soldiers in connection with the murders of three Iraqi men who were in military custody in Iraq in early May, the military said yesterday.

US and Iraqi forces in Fallujah have uncovered the largest-yet weapons cache in the one-time rebel bastion, finding the stockpile inside a mosque led by a key insurgent leader.