TWO British civilian security guards were killed in Baghdad yesterday when a roadside bomb blew up their armour-plated 4X4 vehicle.

Fragments of musical instruments, tufts of women’s hair, and a large blood stain are among the scenes in a film of a destroyed house that survivors claim United States planes bombed during a wedding party.

The US military today released a further group of prisoners from the Abu Ghraib jail, centre of a scandal involving abuse of detainees by American soldiers.

The US military insisted today it targeted foreign fighters not an Iraqi wedding party in a helicopter attack that killed more than 40 people, including children.

Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said today that a shell containing sarin nerve gas used in an attack in Iraq was probably a stray weapon that could have been dated from the first Gulf War.

THE head of the Iraqi Governing Council was assassinated in a suicide car bombing near a checkpoint outside the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad yesterday.

BACKED by helicopters US tanks charged into Najaf yesterday and blasted positions held by fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who condemned the US in a sermon.

NEARLY 300 Iraqi detainees, some weeping, were released from the Abu Ghraib prison yesterday, a day after Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit, insisting the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there.

Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard today in the holy city of Karbala, where American troops are battling fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Black smoke rose near the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the most sacred sites of Shia Islam.

NO TELEVISION cameras or tape recorders will be allowed in the courtroom at next week’s court-martial of a US soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, a senior US officer said yesterday.

US military units holding and interrogating prisoners in Iraq did not get a specific list of techniques permitted during questioning and were expected to follow the Geneva Conventions, a senior Pentagon official said.

A 24-YEAR-OLD US military policeman will be the first soldier to face a court martial in connection with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

A 24-year-old military policeman has been ordered to stand trial in the first court martial in connection with abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

Coalition forces raided buildings used by a militia loyal to a radical Shiite cleric in two southern Iraqi cities today in fighting that killed 15 Iraqis and an American soldier

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commander of the prison in which photographs were taken of the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, told US television network ABC today that she did not know about the prisoner abuse.

US hostage Thomas Hamill was recovered by US forces south of Tikrit in Iraq today after he apparently escaped from captors who had been holding him since an attack on a convoy on April 9, the US military said.

THE US and Britain denounced the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US forces and vowed to punish those responsible as the Arab world reacted angrily to photographs from inside an Iraqi prison shown by CBS television in America.

The commander of the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay has been sent to Iraq to oversee the treatment of 8,000 detainees as part of an investigation into torture at a US army-run prison outside Baghdad,

Photographs of Iraqi prisoners, naked except for hoods covering their heads, stacked in a human pyramid, have been shown on prime time US TV.

US forces delayed joint Iraqi-American patrols in Fallujah after three days of fighting and pressure increased on the United States to prevent an escalation of violence in the besieged city.

US warplanes pounded Fallujah with 500lb laser-guided bombs and US Marines battled with Iraqi insurgents near a train station and in neighbourhoods that had seemed to be quieting.

US warplanes and artillery attacked Sunni insurgents in a thunderous show of force that rocked Fallujah, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the night sky.

A team from the international Red Cross visited ousted and imprisoned Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein today to see his conditions in US custody.

US troops fought a gun battle overnight with insurgents near the Iraqi holy Shiite city of Najaf, killing 43 gunmen and destroying an anti-aircraft system belonging to the insurgents, the US military in Baghdad said.

Two US soldiers were killed when an explosion levelled part of a Baghdad building as they searched it for suspected production of “chemical munitions”.

Two American soldiers died today when a Baghdad building they were searching for “chemical” munitions blew up.

The US military extended a ceasefire for Fallujah for at least two more days, backing down from warnings of an all-out US marine assault and announcing that American and Iraqi forces would begin joint patrols in the city.

US troops are set to enter parts of Najaf soon to clamp down on a radical Shiite cleric’s rebel militia – but they will stay away from sensitive holy sites in the city to avoid rousing religious outrage, a US general said today.

A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad today killing a US soldier and sparking a gunbattle, while Iraqi children were close by, the military said.

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric warned coalition forces against entering the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf to capture a radical cleric wanted for murder as US troops and Shiite militiamen fought in the south. Thirteen Iraqis died in clashes in the north and south.

Around 70 US-led coalition troops and 700 Iraqi insurgents have been killed in fighting across Iraq since April 1, but there is no authoritative figure on Iraqi civilian deaths, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said today.

Insurgents shot down a US Apache attack helicopter in west Baghdad today, killing its two crew-members, the US military said.

A US general today called on Sunni militants in Fallujah to join in a ceasefire to allow further negotiations between Iraqi leaders and representatives of the besieged city.

Terrorists and remnants of Saddam Hussein’s former regime were blamed today for the "horrific" attacks on four American contractors whose mutilated and burned bodies were dragged through the streets of the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

A suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car near a convoy of government vehicles northeast of Baghdad today, killing himself and wounding six others, police said.

TWO American soldiers died in a bomb blast north of Baghdad yesterday amid warnings that attacks will increase with fewer than 100 days left before the coalition hands over sovereignty.

An American soldier died in a bomb blast north of Baghdad today amid warnings that attacks will increase with fewer than 100 days left before the coalition hands over sovereignty.

Two explosions were heard early today in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a day after simultaneous suicide bombings on Shiite Muslim shrines killed at least 143 people.

At least 143 people were killed when simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds of worshippers today at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.

An American military OH-58 Kiowa helicopter has crashed into a river west of Baghdad, killing the two crew members on board.

A US military helicopter crashed today into a river west of Baghdad, police said, and a witness reported seeing a missile hit the aircraft.

American troops killed a key lieutenant of suspected al-Qaida linked militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi during a shoot-out west of Baghdad, the US military said today.

A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people when he blew up his truck outside an Iraqi police station where dozens of men were queuing up to apply for jobs today.

A UN team assessing the feasibility of early elections in Iraq met with local politicians yesterday, amid reports that a suspected al-Qaida operative proposed provoking sectarian conflict between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims to disrupt the scheduled power transfer to Iraqis.