Explosions ripped through Baghdad every few minutes today, beginning with a huge suicide car bombing that shattered the morning calm in a heavily Shiite northern Baghdad district, targeting labourers gathered to find work for the day.

Gunmen wearing military uniforms surrounded a village north of Baghdad early today and executed 17 men, police said.

Paul Garwood, Baghdad

Three suicide car bombings killed 23 people in northern Iraq today, including a top municipal council leader plus a bodyguard of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister, officials said.

Three suicide car bombings killed 16 people in northern Iraq today, including a top municipal council leader plus a bodyguard of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister, police said.