A top Iraqi insurgent leader today claimed in an audiotape posted online that his al-Qaida-linked group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.

Six more American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, officials said today, pushing the US military death toll to at least 2,978 – five more than the number killed in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

British forces in tanks and helicopters stormed an Iraqi jail tonight to rescue two service personnel who were arrested after allegedly shooting dead a local policeman and wounding another, the governor of Basra said.