It was an image shared thousands of times on social media soon after the Boston Marathon explosions – that of a blonde, bespectacled girl running along a street and wearing a red T-shirt, runner’s gear and a bib.

Insurgents struck at the centre of the US-led occupation of Iraq last night, firing mortars at the heavily guarded district that includes major American facilities.

The heart of the American occupation of Iraq came under attack in Baghdad tonight when mortars exploded inside a former presidential palace now used as the coalition headquarters.