At least six people have been killed in a drive-by shooting and a bombing in Iraq.

A triple bombing struck the funeral of the son of an anti-al-Qaeda tribal leader north-east of Baghdad on Sunday, one of several attacks across the country that left 14 people dead, Iraqi officials said.

A wave of bombings has hit mainly Shiite and busy commercial areas in and outside Baghdad killing at least 29 people and wounding 104.

Twenty-three people have been killed in two car bomb attacks in Iraq, officials said.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for simultaneous raids on two Iraqi prisons and said more than 500 inmates had been set free in the operation, one of its most brazen in Iraq.

Al-Qaida has said it was behind raids on two high-security prisons on the outskirts of Baghdad this week that killed dozens and set free hundreds of inmates, including some of its followers.

Where I Left My Soul

US officials have handed over formal control of Afghanistan’s only large-scale US-run prison to Kabul, even as a row between the two countries over thousands of Taliban and terror suspects held there marred the transfer.

Formal control of Afghanistan's only large-scale US-run prison has been handed over to Kabul, even as disagreements between the two countries over the thousands of Taliban and terror suspects held there marred the transfer.

Insurgents killed at least 64 people in a wave of attacks against Iraqi security forces today.

A group of al Qaeda prisoners was caught trying to tunnel out of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, an official said yesterday, after the militants said they would step up their fight against the government.

Most of the English-speaking world’s view of the 20th century is neatly enough book-ended by two entirely avoidable human tragedies.

Four explosions struck Shiite neighbourhoods in Iraq’s capital Baghdad today, killing 13 people and injuring dozens.

Explosions have killed six people in Iraq, including a father and son who were assembling a makeshift bomb that accidentally detonated inside their home, officials said.

A series of blasts in central Iraq killed 15 people today, police officials said. Street vendors, market-goers and day labourers appear to have been the targets of the attacks.

Seven people have been reported killed by bombings in and around Baghdad.

THERE is real irony in the fact that as America marks the greatest terrorist outrage of modern times President Obama needs his Congress’s approval for a €325 billion plan to try to reduce his country’s 9.1% unemployment rate.

Twin car bombings in northern Iraq, and separate attacks on the homes of a schoolteacher and a human rights activist left at least 11 people dead today, government officials said.

SINN FÉIN last night expressed alarm that a British firm contracted to help process census information has links with Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said his biggest mistake during his six years in the Pentagon was not resigning after shocking photos of the treatment of Iraqi inmates by American soldiers at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison were published.

THE convicted Iraqi mastermind of the killing of Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan escaped from prison almost one year ago, a government minister admitted for the first time yesterday.

The US military handed over Tariq Aziz and dozens of other members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle to Iraqi authorities who will assume control today of the last American-run detention facility in the country.

THANKS to Joyce Anderson Gleasure (Letters, April 26) for correcting me on my geographic illiteracy as to the whereabouts of America.

Dozens of people were killed today when two car bombs and a suicide bomber struck outside a textile factory.

A lawyer representing Iraqis who claim they were tortured and sexually abused by British soldiers said today that there could be hundreds of uninvestigated claims of abuse.

Abu Ghraib prison inmates rioted for a second straight day today to demand better conditions, setting fire to mattresses and seizing an assault rifle from a guard before authorities said the situation was brought under control.

A GROUP of former reformist lawmakers appealed to a powerful clerical body in Iran to investigate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s qualification to rule in an unprecedented challenge to the country’s most powerful man over the post-election crackdown.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s right to rule received an unprecedented challenge from a group of former reformist politicians today.

A fresh wave of bombings swept the Baghdad area today as Iraq braced itself for more violence ahead of the planned withdrawal of US troops from major cities next week.

President Barack Obama will try to block the court-ordered release of photos showing US troops abusing prisoners, in an abrupt U-turn on his previous position.

The US Defence Department will release a "substantial number" of photos depicting abuse of prisoners by US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

A suicide bomber killed 33 people leaving a reconciliation meeting between Sunni and Shiite rivals near Baghdad today.

Iraqi officials say at least 20 people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a meeting of tribal leaders near Baghdad today.

Iraq has reopened the infamous Abu Ghraib prison – with promises that prisoners would be treated according to international standards in a bid to overcome the facility’s reputation as a centre for abuse.

IN Washington DC at the weekend, the Bush joke books piled high in the stores’ discount sections told their own story.

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in Iraq today among police officers who were celebrating the release of a comrade from US custody, killing at least 22 people, Iraqi officials said.

'Standard Operating Procedure' is not quite a documentary, though it’s based on the notorious photos that emerged from the Abu Ghrabi prison that exposed the torture of Iraqui prisoners by American soldiers.

WHEN US President George W Bush visited Ireland for the first time — four years ago this month — it was a significant event and was marked accordingly.

FBI agents raised misgivings about US interrogators’ mistreatment of terror suspects detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay during the three years after September 11, but in some cases were slow to report it, a US Justice Department report says.

MARCH 17, 2003: US President George Bush gives Saddam Hussein 48-hour deadline to give up power.

An al-Qaida front group today lashed out at a key nationalist Sunni Muslim insurgent faction in a rare criticism of a fellow rebel group, accusing it of betraying religion by joining the US forces in their fight against al-Qaida.

A military court acquitted a US Army officer of failing to control lower-ranking soldiers who humiliated and abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during the autumn of 2003.

A military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, today acquitted a US Army officer of failing to control US soldiers accused of abusing detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, but it found him guilty of disobeying an order.

The former commander of seven disgraced military police soldiers at Abu Ghraib said the only officer charged in the prisoner-abuse scandal was well aware of shocking conditions inside the prison in Iraq.