Iraq’s Shiite prime minister declared yesterday that he would not be blackmailed into abandoning his bid for a second term.

Gunmen attacked the car of a top Sunni political leader in Baghdad today, killing one bodyguard and wounding five.

Nearly two years after his capture, Saddam Hussein is finally facing trial today for alleged crimes against fellow Iraqis.

US troops battled insurgents holed up in houses and driving explosives-laden vehicles in a second town near the Syrian border, killing 28 in an expansion of their two-day-old offensive chasing al Qaida fighters along the Euphrates River valley, the military said.