Explosives planted in a car went off while police were trying to defuse them in Sadr City, killing two policemen and wounding four civilians, police said today amid reports that more car bombs were targeting the Shiite slum.

US and Iraqi forces swept into Baghdad’s Sadr City Shiite slum in an early morning raid today, killing four Iraqis, wounding eight and detaining five, police said.

A pair of mortar rounds slammed into a football field while young men were playing a game in a Shiite district of Baghdad today, as more than 60 people were killed in attacks nationwide.

A series of bombings and mortar attacks – including two suicide bombings in the northern city of Kirkuk, killed at least 27 people and wounded another 80 today.

Up to 50 people were killed today – more than half of them children – when Israeli missiles struck a southern Lebanese village early today, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents.

SIX people including a pro-India politician were killed in Kashmir, where a forest gun battle between Islamic militants and Indian troops entered a fourth day yesterday.