US President George Bush today made a farewell visit to Iraq just 37 days before he hands over to a successor who has pledged to end the war.

David Petraeus, the American general who presided over Iraq’s pull back from the brink of all-out civil war, relinquished his command today to General Ray Odierno under a cascade of official thank-yous.

The target date for putting Iraqi authorities in charge of security in all 18 provinces has slipped back yet again, to at least July.

The No 2 US commander in Iraq today said a 7-month-old security operation has reduced violence by 50% in Baghdad but he acknowledged that civilians were still dying at too high a rate.

The US military believes that five British security guards kidnapped in May in Baghdad are still alive, the No 2 American commander in Iraq said today.

A parked car bomb exploded near a market in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad today, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 60, police said.

The UN Security Council today condemned the terrorist attack on Iraq’s parliament “in the strongest terms” and called for national dialogue and reconciliation to restore peace and security in the violence-wracked country.

In a direct challenge to US President George Bush, Democrats in the House of Representatives today announced they will push legislation setting a timetable for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq.

The Pentagon has approved a request by the new US commander in Iraq for an extra 2,200 military police (MPs) to help deal with an anticipated increase in detainees during the current Baghdad security crackdown.

“My name is Saddam Hussein,” the fallen Iraqi leader told US troops in English as they pulled him out of a dank hole that had become his home.

WHEN darkness fell, the Americans moved into position, 600 of them, from infantrymen to elite special forces.

HE was grubby, dishevelled and appeared compliant. Those who loved or hated Saddam Hussein could not believe that the man who for decades terrorised his people and neighbours could surrender to US troops without even firing a shot.

When darkness fell, the Americans moved into position, 600 of them, from infantrymen to elite special forces.

Saddam Hussein’s capture followed information from a member of a family “close to him”, it was revealed in Tikrit.

US occupation authorities took the apparent gamble of cleaning up the appearance of the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons in a bid to convince sceptical Iraqis that Uday and Qusay are really dead.

US forces, acting on a tip from an informant, have arrested several men believed to be part of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s personal security detachment during a raid south of Tikrit, a senior US military commander said yesterday.

US doctors cosmetically improved the bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons today -their faces reconstructed to appear as lifelike as possible after still photos failed to convince many Iraqis they were really dead.

US troops captured five to ten people believed to be members of Saddam Hussein's personal security detail in a raid on a house, it was revealed today.

AMERICAN forces have taken into custody Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam's presidential secretary and number four on the US most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, a US official said yesterday.

ARABS and Turks in Iraq’s main northern oil city threatened yesterday to boycott a vote for mayor as an American general approved six final members of a city council charged with healing ethnic feuding that threatens the region’s stability.

A former top official of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, and cousin of the deposed leader, surrendered to coalition forces in Baghdad today, the US military said.