Weeping and beating their chests, hundreds of people inspected bodies at an Iraqi morgue today, trying to identify friends and family who died in the single deadliest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

IRAQI militants freed three Turkish hostages yesterday, as another group of kidnappers claimed to have executed a US soldier captured nearly three months ago.

Iraqi militants shot dead an American soldier they have held hostage for nearly three months, saying he was killed because the US government did not change its policy in Iraq, Al-Jazeera television said today.