An adviser to the CIA has hinted that US and coalition staff were close to a breakthrough in the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The US has approved the payment of the €28.6m reward to the Iraqi who revealed where Saddam Hussein’s two sons were hiding.

A grenade attack killed three US soldiers and wounded four as they guarded a children’s hospital northeast of Baghdad.

THE US may release graphic photos of the bullet-ridden corpses of Saddam Hussein’s sons to convince sceptical Iraqis that they are dead, Bush administration officials said last night.