Heliborne US and Iraqi troops pressed their sweep through a 100-square-mile section of central Iraq today in a bid to break up a centre of insurgent resistance, the US military said. No casualties were reported on either side.

AT least 32 people were killed in attacks in Iraq yesterday, including bombings inside Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone said to have been claimed by the suspected al-Qaida chief in the country, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush's bid to bolster relations with key Middle East ally Turkey was greeted by 40,000 demonstrators chanting anti-American slogans.

Four people have been arrested over the beheading of US businessman Nicholas Berg, whose killing was shown earlier this month in a video on an al-Qaida linked website, a senior Iraqi source said.

Political Editor Harry McGee questions the ‘intelligence’ that led to the Iraq war, and failed to predict September 11 and the Madrid bombings.