A Shiite militant group has released a video of an Iraqi-American soldier who was kidnapped nearly four months ago while visiting his wife in Baghdad, an American television network reported today.

US and Iraqi forces swept into Baghdad’s Sadr City Shiite slum in an early morning raid today, killing four Iraqis, wounding eight and detaining five, police said.

At least eight people were killed by a pair of car bombs that tore through shoppers in central Baghdad today, while a Slovak and Polish soldier were reported killed overnight by a roadside bomb south of the capital.