Militants in Iraq have murdered kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who disappeared last week, Pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported.

The Iraqi government has closed the Iraqi offices of Al-Jazeera for 30 days, accusing the pan-Arab television station of inciting violence.

A suicide attacker detonated a massive car bomb today at a checkpoint near the British Embassy and the interim Iraqi government’s headquarters in Baghdad, killing 11 people and wounding 40, including a US soldier, authorities said.

The Arab news network Al Jazeera today broadcast footage of two Russian hostages held in Iraq, and read a statement from a group that demanded foreign troops withdraw from the country.

Arab media reacted cautiously to the beheading of an American civilian on a video issued by an associate of Osama bin Laden, with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it.

An audiotape attributed to al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and broadcast on two Arab satellite channels accused the United States of trying to abolish Islam.

A sound tape attributed to al Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and broadcast on Al-Jazeera satellite television today alleged an American “crusade” targeting Islam and Muslims.

The US military in Baghdad has detained a reporter for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television broadcaster, saying he had broken unspecified “ground rules”.

GRAPHIC photos of the battered bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons were released by the US yesterday in a bid to convince sceptical Iraqis that the feared brothers were dead.