In Iraq Sunni gunmen ambushed a convoy of minibuses at a fake checkpoint on the dangerous highway south of Baghdad, killing 10 Shiite passengers and kidnapping over 50.

A bomb targeting poor Iraqi Shiites lining up for jobs in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City killed at least 31 people and injured more than 50 others, police said.

The top US general in Iraq today said Iraqi forces should be able to take over security with little coalition support as early as next year, even as a bombing at a Baghdad market killed at least 24 people and dozens of others were slain around the country.

A suicide car bomber in a minibus killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens more today at the entrance of a Baghdad market, police said.

A suicide bomber and a huge car bomb ripped apart a market in Baghdad’s Sadr City Shiite slum shortly before dusk today, killing at least 37 and wounding 95.

At least eight Iraqis were found shot near a Baghdad dam and a slain Iraqi Kurd was left in a garbage dump in northern Iraq, police said today, raising the number of bodies recovered in the past 48 hours to 45.

US AND British troops clashed yesterday with forces of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for a second day, and four Iraqis were killed in an explosion in a Baghdad market.

Iraqi civilians are preparing to take Allied commander Gen Tommy Franks to court in Belgium, accusing him and other US military officials of war crimes in Iraq, it was reported today.

SADDAM HUSSEIN launched his first major offensive out of Baghdad last night, dispatching his elite Republican Guards to confront American troops in central Iraq.

Two cruise missiles struck a residential area in Baghdad today, killing 14 people, Iraqi defence officials said. It was the worst reported instance of civilian deaths since the bombing campaign began a week ago.