A suicide car bomb exploded in front of a provincial government building in northern Iraq today, killing three people and wounding 14, police said.

THE Iraqi government issued a long-anticipated package of security laws yesterday to help crush insurgents, including a provision allowing interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to impose martial law.

US jets pounded a suspected safe house of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah today, the latest in a series of strikes against the man suspected of masterminding deadly attacks and beheadings in Iraq.

A roadside bomb detonated near a Baghdad hospital today, injuring a senior Iraqi Finance Ministry official and killing two of his guards, police said.