Iraqi army reinforcements moved into positions near the northern city of Mosul today, ready to strike al-Qaida in Iraq targets in their last urban stronghold.

Sunni extremists seized control of a remote village north-east of Baghdad in a fierce battle with residents who pleaded for rescue by Iraqi army and police as they tried to defend their homes, the deputy provincial governor said today.

A car bomb and a suicide attacker killed at least 11 people in Baghdad today as militants showed increasing defiance to a major security operation in the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi officials claimed today that at least 200 militants were killed in a fierce battle between US-backed Iraqi troops and a religious cult allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shia Muslim religious festival, while bombings and mortar attacks targeting Shias elsewhere killed at least 15 people.

US and Iraqi troops clashed with gunmen firing heavy weapons from concrete high-rises in a Sunni insurgent stronghold north of the heavily fortified Green Zone today. Iraqi’s defense ministry said as many as 30 militants were killed and 27 captured.

Iraqi security forces are doing everything they can to protect victims of sectarian violence in Baghdad, including families that are being driven from their homes in mixed neighbourhoods of Shiites and Sunni Arabs, a government official said today.

The Iraqi army has captured the personal cameraman for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq group, it was reported today.

BOMBINGS and shootings across Iraq killed at least 63 people yesterday, including 24 people in a bus destroyed by a roadside bomb and a British soldier in a mortar attack in the south.

TWO explosions hit Shi’ite targets in war-torn Iraq after sundown yesterday, killing at least 15 people and raising the death toll for the day to at least 56.

Two explosions hit Shiite targets in northern Baghdad after sundown today, killing at least 15 people and wounding 72, police said. The attacks raised the death toll for the day to at least 56.

Five explosions – including three car bombs, a suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt and a blast near the National Theatre – rocked Baghdad today, killing 41 people and wounding scores.