Two rockets have landed in Baghdad's Green Zone following clashes at anti-government protests that left five people dead, according to Iraqi officials.

A huge explosion rocked central Baghdad just before sunset today and a massive plume of black smoke was rising into the air along the east bank of the Tigris River.

GUNMEN killed Baghdad's governor in Iraq's highest-profile assassination in eight months yesterday.

IRAQI officials and aides to a radical Shi'ite cleric were yesterday trying to negotiate an end to nine days of fighting in the holy city of Najaf after US forces suspended an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr's militia.