SUICIDE bombers killed 74 worshippers at two mosques in eastern Iraq yesterday while in Baghdad two car bombs targeted a hotel housing foreign journalists and killed eight Iraqis.

Suicide bombers killed 65 worshippers at two mosques in eastern Iraq today while in Baghdad two car bombs destroyed the blast wall protecting a hotel housing foreign journalists and killed eight Iraqis.

IRAQ'S Shi'ite interior minister accused critics yesterday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lock-up seized by US troops last weekend.

The discovery of 173 mostly Sunni Arab detainees in an Iraqi Interior Ministry basement lockup – malnourished and showing signs of torture – appeared to validate some of the long-standing grievances and has raised questions about the Shiite-led government’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

An attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two US soldiers and wounded four, an official said today.