A suicide truck bomber struck a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad today, killing as many as 121 people among the crowd buying food for evening meals, one of the most devastating attacks in the capital since the war started.

Iraqi border guards have captured a Saudi who admitted he was involved in last month’s suicide attack on the Abqaiq oil facility in eastern Saudi Arabia, an Iraqi military spokesman said yesterday.

Iran’s foreign minister yesterday demanded the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra, saying their presence had destabilised Iraq’s second-largest city.