A senior officer of the US-backed Fallujah Brigade today disputed US claims that an air strike had hit a safehouse of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s network.

A VIDEO has captured a wedding party that survivors say was later attacked by US warplanes, killing up to 45 people.

A video has captured a wedding party survivors say was later attacked by US warplanes, killing up to 45 people.

The commander of the military police company assigned to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad is prepared to testify that the top US general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the prison and witnessed some of the abuse, it is reported today.

The United States military said today it has found “no evidence of a wedding” at the site of an air strike last week near the Syrian border.

Survivors of a US attack on Iraq’s border with Syria say a bomb scored a direct hit on a tent where wedding party revellers were sleeping.

The US military will release 472 prisoners on Friday from the Abu Ghraib jail, centre of a scandal involving abuse of detainees by American soldiers.

A ROADSIDE bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent exploded near a US military convoy, the US military said yesterday.

A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent has exploded in Iraq near a US military convoy, said a US military spokesman today.

THE woman soldier at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal was photographed having sex with other military guards, sometimes in front of detainees, US senators said yesterday.

A female soldier at the centre of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal was photographed having sex with other military guards, sometimes in front of detainees, senators said today.

US Defence Sectretary Donald Rumsfeld's surprise visit to Baghdad comes a day after the military announced it will court-martial two more American soldiers.

TWO more US soldiers have been ordered to stand trial in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

ESCORTED by Iraqi forces, US Marines entered the centre of Fallujah yesterday for the first time since the end of the bloody siege last month.

No television cameras or tape recorders will be allowed in the courtroom at next week’s court-martial of a US soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, a senior US officer said today.

The US military will next week begin the first in a series of courts-martial in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse allegations, trials that could bring new revelations on whether the mistreatment of Iraqis was an aberration or stemmed from pressure from commanders.

THREE weeks after his kidnapping, US hostage Thomas Hamill was yesterday free.

Outrage flashed across the Middle East as TV stations showed graphic images of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by smiling US military police.

PHOTOGRAPHS of Iraqi prisoners, naked except for hoods covering their heads, stacked in a human pyramid, have been shown on prime time US TV.

THE besieged Shi’ite city of Fallujah was rocked again by a series of explosions and gunfire yesterday — only hours after a heavy battle in which US warplanes and artillery pounded insurgents holed up in a slum.

MULTIPLE explosions shook Fallujah after dark yesterday as fighting erupted in the Iraqi city for the second straight night.

TWO American soldiers were killed yesterday when an explosion levelled part of a Baghdad building they were searching for suspected production of “chemical munitions”.

FIERCE fighting in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah yesterday killed one American soldier and eight insurgents, casting doubt on a deal Americans had hoped would end one of their biggest problems in Iraq.

INSURGENTS fired 12 mortars into Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison yesterday, killing 22 detainees and injuring 92.

Twenty-one prisoners died when mortars rained into a Baghdad detention facility today.

IRAQ’S multinational peacekeeping force scrambled to regroup yesterday after Spain’s announcement that it would pull out its 1,300 troops, with Albania pledging more soldiers but US officials bracing themselves for more withdrawals.

The US army laid siege to the holy Iraq city of Najaf today in a bid to capture a radical cleric leading an uprising against coalition forces.

More than 40 hostages from 12 nations are being held captive in Iraq, the US revealed today as four missing Italian security guards and a French journalist added to the total.

A third round of negotiations aimed at ending fighting in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah will be held today, a US commander said.

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four American contractors from their burning jeeps yesterday, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four foreign contractors – at least one an American – out of their burning cars today, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

Insurgents attacked a US patrol north of Baghdad and a gunbattle left a soldier and three rebels dead, the military said today.

TWO Baghdad hotels used by foreign contractors, businesspeople and media organisations were shaken by explosions last night but US soldiers at the scene said there did not appear to be serious injuries.

A suicide bomber blew up his car as a British military patrol passed by in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on today, killing himself and three civilians, police said.

SHI'ITE Muslim mourners chanted anti-American slogans yesterday, venting their anger at Iraq's instability after suicide bombings killed up to 271 pilgrims.

A suicide bomber today blew up his vehicle at a main gate to the headquarters compound of the US-led coalition in Baghdad, killing about 20 people in the deadliest attack since the capture of Saddam Hussein last month.

US forces moved a step closer to the most wanted man in Saddam Hussein’s regime yesterday, detaining his four nephews in a pre-dawn raid and capturing another top fugitive thought to be a paymaster in the anti-coalition insurgency.

A cache of 36 shells buried in the Iraqi desert have been uncovered, and preliminary tests by British experts showed they contained a liquid blister agent, it emerged today.

Nine American troops were killed today when a Black Hawk helicopter on a medical mission went down in Iraq’s violent Sunni Triangle.