A US Army investigation into the abuse of inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison will blame two dozen people, a senior defence official said in Washington.

An Army investigation into the abuse of inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison will blame two dozen people, a senior defence official said in Washington.

US governor Paul Bremer has left Iraq after the transfer of sovereignty to an interim government was completed today.

A private interrogator accused of abuses at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison has told investigators that he and military intelligence operatives directed prison guards to keep Iraqi prisoners awake for as much as 20 hours a day.

The Army general who was in charge of the US prison guards accused of abusing Iraqis has been suspended from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade, officials said.

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.

US senators are pulling in top generals from Iraq to tell what they know about the prisoner abuse scandal over strong criticism from a Republican committee chairman in the House.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, making a surprise visit to the Iraqi prison at the centre of the abuse scandal, said today lawyers were advising the Pentagon not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being treated badly by US soldiers.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad today on an unannounced visit aimed at calming the storm over prisoner abuse.

SEVEN more US soldiers have been reprimanded in the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and the US officer who oversaw Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison suggested that many more may be involved.

Outrage over the torture of Iraqi prisoners by United States troops intensified tonight after claims that the abuse included sexual assault and threats of rape.

The commander of the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay has been sent to Iraq to oversee the treatment of 8,000 detainees as part of an investigation into torture at a US army-run prison outside Baghdad,

A 2,500-STRONG US force backed by tanks and artillery pushed to the outskirts of the Shi'ite city of Najaf last night for a showdown with radical Shi'ite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr.

US forces today regained control of a southern Iraqi city seized this week by a rebellious Shiite militia and resumed their offensive in Fallujah after a brief halt for talks.

Kidnappers seized 13 foreign hostages and threatened to burn three Japanese captives alive if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from Iraq as fighting in Fallujah raged today between insurgents and US forces.

SHI'ITE Muslim militants were in full control of two key Iraqi cities yesterday as violence escalated and Sunni fighters killed a US marine in the battle for Fallujah.

The top US commander in Iraq cast doubt today on whether Spain would withdraw its troops from Iraq, but added that if they did, the loss would not be “a significant military problem”.

At least 10 Iraqi civilians were killed today when two suicide bombers launched an attack on a coalition base where international troops are based.

The top US commander in Iraq today urged Saddam loyalists to lay down arms and ”embrace the future,”, saying they will otherwise end up either dead or in custody.

THE interim Iraqi government said it wants to try Saddam Hussein before a special tribunal but a human rights group has voiced deep concern about the legitimacy of the newly-established panel.

“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.

American forces captured a bearded Saddam Hussein, hiding in a hole in a farmhouse cellar near his hometown of Tikrit, the US military announced today.

Guerrillas killed two United States soldiers and wounded a third in an ambush in western Iraq, making November the bloodiest month since the war in the country began on March 20.

It was the biggest of holiday surprises. The troops were getting irritable, 300 sitting for more than an hour, waiting – for no good reason, it seemed – to get in the chow line at the Bob Hope Dining Hall at Baghdad International Airport, ready for their turkey dinners.

Attackers fired mortars toward the US headquarters in Baghdad as Washington’s top soldier in Iraq said insurgents have changed tactics to inflict more damage and casualties on coalition troops while reducing their own.

THE top US commander in Iraq said yesterday that he needs more international forces to deal with an array of potential security threats, including al-Qaida terrorists, Iranian fighters and clashes between ethnic and religious militias.

More than 300,000 Muslims began a two-day, 110-mile march to the holy city of Najaf today to mourn the Shiite leader assassinated in a car bombing that killed at least 85 people.

THE US Army began training an Iraqi militia force yesterday to take on civil defence duties and pave the way for US forces to leave Iraq.

A “blanket of fear” will hang over the Iraqi people until Saddam Hussein is captured or killed, the commander of coalition forces said today.

Reports of their deaths may be greatly exaggerated. Given the dodgy quality of the information that the Americans and the British have been indoctrinating the rest of the world with, there is still a good chance that Qusay and Uday — not to mention the 14 year-old boy — are alive and well.

US forces captured a senior Iraqi Republican Guard official yesterday, one day after killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay in a four-hour gun battle.

Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay were killed by 10 anti-tank missiles when they returned US calls to surrender with small arms fire, the US commander of Allied troops in Iraq said today.

Two soldiers from the USA’s 101st Airborne Division were killed early today and another was injured when their convoy came under rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire in northern Iraq, the US military said.