Video purportedly showing a suicide attack on three British troops outside Baghdad was posted on an Islamic website today.

Militant group al-Qaida in Iraq have called for the release of the kidnapped Irish-born executive of the Care charity, Margaret Hassan – and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.

Insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq today called for the release of the kidnapped Irish executive of the CARE charity, Margaret Hassan – and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.

Masked militants today threatened to behead a Japanese hostage within 48 hours unless Japan pulls its troops out of Iraq.

The US military reported today that an aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike in the militant stronghold of Fallujah.

The negotiator for the militant Shiite stronghold of Fallujah was freed from US custody today but refused to resume peace talks.

US troops pounded the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah with airstrikes and tank fire, and the Iraqi government appealed to residents to expel ”foreign terrorists” to prevent an all-out attack.

US forces battled insurgents around the rebel stronghold of Fallujah today as militants ambushed and killed nine Iraqi policemen returning from training in Jordan.

US warplanes pounded the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah yesterday, a day after the city’s leaders suspended peace talks and rejected the Iraqi government’s demands to turn over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

American warplanes pounded the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah today after the city’s leaders suspended peace talks and rejected the Iraqi government’s demands to turn over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The beheadings of two Iraqi intelligence officers by their kidnappers appeared in a video on an Islamic website today.

The beheading of two hostages in Iraq – one a Kurdish translator and the other a Turkish contractor – was shown an Islamist website today.

An Arabic television station broadcast video today showing three hooded gunmen threatening to behead a Turkish hostage within three days unless their conditions are met.

Car bombers have struck twice in rapid succession in Baghdad, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier, as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that violence may increase before the January election.

Car bombers struck twice in rapid succession in the Iraqi capital today, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier and wounding at least 16.

AL-QAIDA-linked militants in Iraq beheaded hostage Kenneth Bigley despite last-ditch secret appeals from the British government.

THE British Embassy in Iraq has no information about news reports that hostage Ken Bigley has been handed over to another kidnapping group.

The British Embassy in Iraq has no information about news reports that hostage Ken Bigley has been handed over to another kidnapping group.

US aircraft blasted the rebel stronghold of Fallujah three times in 24 hours over the weekend in a concerted effort to hit militants loyal to guerrilla chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

American troops have arrested a senior commander of the US-trained Iraqi National Guard for alleged ties to insurgents.

Lil Bigley, the 86-year-old mother of captive Ken Bigley, was taken to hospital again this afternoon.

THE British and Iraqi governments said yesterday they would not bow to the demands of militants threatening to kill a British hostage, despite a video message from the captive pleading for his life.

THE appalling plight of British hostage Kenneth Bigley has touched the hearts of people everywhere but the stark reality is that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was right not to intervene in this gruesome situation.

The spiritual leader of the terror group believed to have killed two American hostages in Iraq this week and responsible for a string of other deadly attacks has been killed in a US air strike, his family and Islamic clerics said yesterday.

British hostage Kenneth Bigley’s life was tonight in the blood-stained hands of a terrorist who has severed the heads of two other captives.

There was reportedly a glimmer of hope for the distraught family of British hostage Kenneth Bigley when Iraq’s justice minister pledged to release one of the two Iraqi women in custody - a partial concession to the kidnappers’ demands.

A VIDEO posted on a website last night showed the apparent beheading of American construction contractor Eugene Armstrong, said to have been carried out personally by key Iraq terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Iraqi kidnappers tonight beheaded an American on video – but said two more Western hostages, including British man Kenneth Bigley, would have the deadline for their executions delayed by 24 hours.

US warplanes and artillery units fired on the insurgent-held city of Fallujah overnight, killing four people and wounding six, hospital officials said.

Iraqi police suffered two mortal blows today in attacks that left at least 59 people dead and more than 120 injured.

US FORCES launched air strikes on Fallujah yesterday, targeting what they said was a meeting of key loyalists of their top foe in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A video purporting to show the beheading of a Turkish driver kidnapped in Iraq last month surfaced today on the website of an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

MILITANTS pounded central Baghdad yesterday with one of their most intense mortar barrages ever, targeting the Green Zone.

Iraqi militants have threatened to behead a Turkish lorry driver if his employers and the Kuwaiti contractor they work for don’t cease operations in Iraq within 48 hours, according to a video tape broadcast on the Al-Arabiya television station today.

Militants saying they belong to a group that has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and killings in Iraq beheaded a man identified only as a Bulgarian in a video posted on the internet today.

A tribal chief in the turbulent Iraqi city of Fallujah led a raid that freed four Jordanian hostages kidnapped a week ago, it emerged today.

MASKED gunmen killed a Turkish hostage with three gunshots to the head, according to a video posted on the Internet, and the Turkish truckers' union said yesterday it would stop supplying US forces in Iraq, bowing to militant demands in hopes of saving two other captive Turks.

A militant linked to al Qaida, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has issued a website statement claiming responsibility for an attack on a home used by Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi.

A suicide attacker detonated a massive car bomb today at a checkpoint near the British Embassy and the interim Iraqi government’s headquarters in Baghdad, killing 11 people and wounding 40, including a US soldier, authorities said.

A MILITANT group holding two Bulgarian truck drivers hostage in Iraq said last night it had executed one of them and planned to kill the other in 24 hours.

THE camera shows the suicide bomber warmly embracing a group of masked men. There are kisses on the cheek and a shot of him in the cab of a truck — his fingers resting on what appears to be a detonator.