About 12,000 US soldiers and 4,000 British soldiers will leave Iraq by September, it was announced, hours after a Baghdad suicide bomber killed about 30 people in a chilling reminder of the nation’s still-shaky security.

IRAQIS gathered around televisions to watch Saddam Hussein's trial yesterday, with Shi'ite victims of his regime calling the proceedings long-overdue justice, but some Sunni Arabs condemning it as unfair humiliation of the former leader.