A coalition forces airstrike killed a local Taliban commander and 15 other militants in fighting in southern Afghanistan, the US military said today.

Police clashed with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan today, killing six and wounding 12 insurgents, a district chief said.

Ireland’s bogey team Switzerland booked their place in the World Cup finals by edging out Turkey in a dramatic match in Istanbul tonight.

A car bomb exploded in a busy Mosul market today and a mortar barrage struck near the Italian Embassy and an Iraqi National Guard base in Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding at least seven.

Assailants detonated roadside bombs in two separate attacks north of the Iraqi capital today, killing three civilians in attacks apparently aimed at passing US troops, hospital officials said.

A suicide attacker exploded a car bomb outside a Baqouba police station today, killing 15 Iraqis and injuring at least 37.

HUNDREDS of families who lost their homes to post-war rent hikes, are bracing for a freezing winter haunted by the fear of another expulsion from their dilapidated shacks, along Baghdad’s notoriously violent airport road.

IRAQI Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim was killed at the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf yesterday, along with at least 75 other people, just moments after delivering a sermon calling for unity.