IRAQ’S president said yesterday he would convene the new parliament for the first time on March 12, beginning a 60-day countdown during which lawmakers must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and cabinet.

A WAVE of sectarian rage swept across Iraq yesterday leaving at least 110 people dead and the violence-wracked country careering towards civil war.

A large explosion today destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq’s most famous Shiite religious shrines, sending protesters pouring into the streets. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days.

SUNNI insurgents determined to derail this weekend's constitutional referendum attacked the largest Sunni Arab political party yesterday, bombing and burning offices and the home of one of its leaders.

Hundreds of Iraqi police and army troops fanned out across Baghdad yesterday, setting up checkpoints and fortifying polling stations with barbed wire and blast barriers two days ahead of a historic constitutional referendum.

A CARBOMB exploded outside a Shi’ite mosque north-east of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens, a police official and witnesses said.

An aide to Iraq’s most revered Shiite Muslim cleric was injured in an assassination attempt in Baghdad after receiving threats from militants opposed to his support for Iraq’s elections, a relative of the man said today.

A suicide car bomber attacked a Shiite Muslim community centre near Baghdad today, killing three people and wounding eight, police said.

He may represent the greatest challenge to the US-led coalition's plans for restoring sovereignty to Iraq, but powerful cleric Ali al-Sistani hides behind an arcane and near-impenetrable curtain of Shi'ite Muslim ritual and austerity.