A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria in an assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, US-protected Green Zone today, killing at least eight people including three politicians, the American military said.

Many people were wounded when a bomb rocked Iraq’s parliament building in the heavily fortified Baghdad Green Zone today.

TWO Islamic terror cells were rushing to become the first to stage a major “jihad” terror bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Police in Australia arrested 16 terror suspects, including a radical Muslim cleric accused of leading a cell dedicated to “violent jihad", in a string of raids in the early hours of today and said they had foiled a catastrophic terror attack.

The al-Qaida terror network has claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing in which 17 people were killed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Saturday, an Arab newspaper reported.

An e-mail written by a purported al-Qaida leader has warned the terrorist network is preparing to stage devastating attacks against Americans during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

IRAQI Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim was killed at the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf yesterday, along with at least 75 other people, just moments after delivering a sermon calling for unity.

A militant who is suspected of masterminding the May 12 suicide bombings in the Saudi capital has been arrested, state radio reported today.

An al-Qaida commander warned the terror network was about to stage major attacks in Saudi Arabia in an e-mail just a day before the deadly suicide bombings in Riyadh, an Arab magazine has reported.