Suspected Islamic State bombers assassinated an Iraqi provincial police chief and killed 28 people in an attack on a Kurdish security headquarters yesterday a second straight day of mass attacks that killed scores.

A series of car bombs exploded across Iraq’s capital tonight, killing at least 52 people in a day of violence that saw militants storm a university in the country’s restive Anbar province and take dozens hostage, authorities said.

A senior Iraqi military commander has said it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

Five Iraqi policemen have been killed in an insurgent attack on their checkpoint in the western half of the country, officials said today.

The governor of Iraq’s largest Sunni province has survived an assassination attempt in a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

Rebels have broken into a police station in western Iraq and are holding a number of officers hostage, officials said today.

A bomb targeting worshippers attending Friday prayers at a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad has killed 16 people and wounded dozens more, the top medical official in the province said.

A pair of explosions outside a government compound in Iraq’s western Anbar province has killed 17 people, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.

Two people have been killed and seven injured, some critically, after a suicide bomber blew herself up in a Governor's compound in Iraq's western Anbar Province.

A car bomb in Iraq's western Anbar province has killed at least seven civilians.

Explosions in central Iraq have killed 21 people and wounded 48 including the governor of Anbar province, police said today.

A series of bombings killed at least 19 people and wounded 60 today in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, said police and hospital officials, a worrying sign that violence may be on the rise in this former hotbed of the insurgency.

Iraq sent police reinforcements today to the Syrian border after last weekend’s US raid against an alleged al-Qaida hideout in Syria raised tension between the two countries, officials said.

AN OIL refinery in Iraq’s western desert has resumed production, the government said yesterday, as part of an outreach to an area once controlled by Sunni insurgents.

A car bomb exploded near the Iranian Embassy today in Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding five, police said.

US Marines in helicopters and Humvees flooded into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan’s most violent province early today – the first major American operation in the region for years.

HUNDREDS of people, including many children, chanted slogans praising Saddam Hussein as they tossed flowers on to his tomb one year after he was executed.

A car bomb struck a bakery crowded with customers lining up for bread today, killing at least 11 people as they ended their daytime Ramadan fast, officials said.

US President George Bush will tomorrow announce plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by as many as 30,000 by the middle of next year, subject to continued progress.

President Bush today defended his build-up of forces in Iraq and pledged to “hang in there” with Iraqis despite calls from Congress to get troops home.

The US military today announced the deaths of 14 American troops, including five killed in a single roadside bombing and one whose vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The Fallujah city council chairman, a critic of al-Qaida who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed today – the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

A suicide car bomber hit a police checkpoint today in western Ramadi, killing at least 20 people – two of them policemen – and wounding as many as 20, police in the Anbar provincial capital.

A US Marine was killed in combat in Iraq’s volatile Anbar province, the military said today.

WITH Democrats pushing for an end to the Iraq war, US President George W Bush pleaded for more patience yesterday, saying success is possible but “will take months, not days or weeks”.

US President George Bush pleaded for more patience in the Iraq war today, saying success is possible but “will take months, not days or weeks".

The US military today announced the deaths of seven more soldiers in Iraq, including four killed by a roadside bomb while they were patrolling western Baghdad, as casualties mount during a month-old security crackdown.

Three suicide bombers driving chlorine-laden trucks struck in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing two policemen and forcing about 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops to seek treatment for exposure to the gas, the military said today.

Multiple suicide bombings struck areas in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, and about 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops had to be treated for exposure to chlorine gas, the military said today.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today issued a statement calling on his supporters to resist US forces in Iraq, and a local militia commander blamed an attack against the mayor of Sadr City on a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans.

A Marine was killed in combat operations in western Iraq today, the US military said.

BRITAIN will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the “coming months”, aiming to cut its force to below 5,000 by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday.

At least 11 people were killed in Iraq today when a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

A US Marine was killed in fighting in the volatile Anbar province, the military said in Iraq today.

Iraqi forces today detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of pounds to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the US military said.

Arab diplomat Mokhtar Lamani has resigned, disillusioned and nearly drained of hope, after spending months in Iraq trying to coax Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders into peace.

Three US troops were killed in fighting in Iraq’s Anbar province west of Baghdad, the military said today.

Mortar shells rained down today on a girls’ secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20, witnesses and police said. At least seven other people died in a series of bombings and shootings across the capital.

A US Marine was today killed in fighting in a volatile Iraqi province west of Baghdad.

Two US Marines were killed today during fighting in a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, the US military have revealed.

Two bombs exploded seconds apart in a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad today, killing at least 78 people and wounding at least 156, said Iraqi police and Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili.

Hours before Saddam Hussein’s execution, the ousted Iraqi leader asked his lawyers not to appeal for his life and accused the United States and Iran of collaborating to hang him, according to a copy of his will.

US President George Bush’s new strategy to send thousands of extra troops to Iraq was met with harsh scepticism across the Middle East today where many predicted that even with more soldiers, America would fail at breaking the cycle of violence.

Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to allow supporters to rejoin the Iraqi government after a three-week boycott, officials close to the militia leader said, as political rivals pushed to form a coalition without him.