A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol today, killing one officer and wounding four others and a civilian, a police official said.

Iraqi soldiers hoisted the nation’s flag over the Basra palace compound today after British troops withdrew from their last garrison in the city.

US TROOPS have killed the al-Qaida in Iraq mastermind of the bombing that destroyed the golden dome of a famed sacred Shi’ite shrine last year, the military said yesterday.

The United States and Iran are to hold ambassador-level talks in Baghdad regarding the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

A SUICIDE bomber killed eight Iraqi schoolgirls and a toddler in the northern oil city of Kirkuk yesterday as suspected Sunni militants executed 21 Shi’ite workers.

US troops arrested the son of Iraq’s top Shiite politician today as he returned to the country from Iran, it was reported today.

US TROOPS should begin withdrawing from combat and Washington should launch a diplomatic and political push to halt a “grave and deteriorating” crisis in Iraq, a high-level panel studying the war said yesterday.

A lawyer for Saddam Hussein has appealed to a US court in an attempt to win a stay of execution for the former leader, arguing Saddam’s rights were violated by US troops.

DUBLIN North East Labour TD Tommy Broughan’s recent statements on the use of Shannon airport by US troops have really put the cat among the pigeons in his party.

Four US soldiers have been charged with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya, the military said on Sunday.

In the wake of the Haditha investigation, the top US general in Iraq today ordered American commanders to conduct core values training on moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.

A car bomb detonated outside a hospital in the centre of a town south of Baghdad today, killing 30 and wounding 35.

IRAQ'S Shi'ite interior minister accused critics yesterday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lock-up seized by US troops last weekend.

US TROOPS killed 10 insurgents north of Baghdad yesterday, while 10 Iraqi troops died in two separate attacks in a surge of violence following a relative lull last week.

Hollywood beauty Brittany Murphy agreed to pose for a sexy photoshoot for American men's magazine Maxim after the editor promised to send 40,000 copies bearing a personal message from the 8 Mile actress to US troops stati oned in war-torn Iraq.

IRAQI officials said yesterday Syrian authorities had captured Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and 29 other officials of the deposed dictator’s Ba’ath Party in Syria and handed them over to Iraq in an apparent goodwill gesture.

Eleven Iraqis and a US Marine were killed in election violence today as insurgents clashed with US troops and blew up a school slated to serve as a polling centre.

Gunmen have assassinated a senior Iraqi judge and killed his bodyguard today in a series of shootings of government employees and policemen that highlight grave security risks ahead in the run-up to this weekend’s elections.

US TROOPS urged civilians to flee Fallujah yesterday and launched air strikes on the rebel city ahead of an assault seen as critical to attempts to pacify Iraq before January elections.

A video of a Polish woman, kidnapped in Baghdad last night, was shown on Al-Jazeera television today.

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

AFGHAN security forces clashed with dozens of Taliban militiamen yesterday as campaigning for the nation’s first direct presidential election opened in a crucial step in the war-ravaged nation’s troubled transition to democracy.

AMERICAN and Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents north of Baghdad early yesterday, killing 13 Iraqi militants, the US military said.

IRAQ'S new prime minister has called for a "rational dialogue" with Shi'ite rebel leader Moqtada Sadr, and asked other Muslim nations to contribute to the multinational force in Iraq once his government takes power on June 30.

A ROADSIDE bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent exploded near a US military convoy, the US military said yesterday.

US troops today started releasing more than 300 Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, where abuses by American soldiers were revealed.

Lawyers are advising the Defence Department not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by US soldiers, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today at the outset of a hastily-arranged visit to Iraq aimed at containing the abuse scandal.

US troops have arrested a representative of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as he attended a meeting of tribal leaders at a hotel in Baghdad yesterday.

United States soldiers today arrested a former Iraqi army major who is suspected of leading a Fedayeen cell in attacks on coalition forces, the US Army said.

US troops rounded up suspected rebels today during house-to-house searches in strongholds of Saddam Hussein, capitalising on intelligence gleaned from the capture of the former Iraqi dictator.

US troops mistakenly shot and killed three Iraqi police officers and wounded two others, thinking they were bandits, an Iraqi police officer said today.

The capture of Saddam Hussein could make it easier to catch the world’s other top fugitive – al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden – and dampen support for the growing insurgency in Afghanistan, allied officials in Kabul claimed.

A glance at the life of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

US troops have arrested at least 20 insurgents in a raid in northern Iraq, but they failed to capture their main target – Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former Saddam deputy and the King of Clubs in the most wanted list.

THE Iraqi town of Samarra was partly devastated after US troops yesterday responded to two ambushes.

US troops arrested the wife and daughter of a top Saddam Hussein deputy suspected of masterminding attacks on US troops, and a major pipeline linking northern Iraqi oilfields to the country’s biggest refinery was ablaze today.

More than a dozen rockets fired from donkey carts slammed into Iraq’s Oil Ministry and two hotels today – in brazen coordinated strikes at Baghdad’s most heavily protected civilian sites.

US troops have arrested six Iraqis suspected in attacks against US helicopters, including at least two allegedly involved in last week’s downing of a Black Hawk that killed all six people on board, officials said today.

American soldiers mistakenly killed 11 Iraqi policemen today as they chased a car through a US checkpoint in a small town west of Fallujah, witnesses said.

THE commander of US forces in Iraq yesterday blamed continuing violence on insufficient intelligence and lack of co-operation from the Iraqi people.

HUNDREDS of US soldiers raided a northern Iraqi town yesterday in a bid to smash a crime ring wanted for murder, gunrunning and a terrorist attack on a police station that killed a US soldier earlier this month.