A suicide car bomber targeted a line of vehicles stopped at a checkpoint in western Iraq today, killing eight people and wounding 16, police and hospital officials said.

Al Qaida wants to provoke a religious war in Iraq to further destabilise the conflict-ridden country, according to a captured document reported today.

The Arab League, torn for months over whether to recognise Iraq’s US-appointed authority, granted the fledgling Governing Council the Iraqi seat on the 22-member pan-Arab body today.

THE formation of a new Iraqi government will start next week, the country’s US administrator said yesterday, after American forces netted four more senior members of Saddam Hussein’s old guard.

THE US military has issued a most-wanted list of 55 former leaders in Saddam Hussein’s regime to be pursued, captured or killed.