Suicide bombers killed 13 people in a pair of attacks today around the Iraqi Sunni city of Ramadi, in what local officials said was part of a power struggle between al-Qaida and tribes that have broken with the terror network.

Roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers in separate attacks today in Diyala province and Baghdad, and a car bomb claimed 30 more lives in a wholesale food market in a part of the Iraqi capital where sectarian tensions are on the rise.

A car bombed ripped through a commercial district in western Baghdad today, killing 25 people and wounding at least 80 others, in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in recent days.

Gunmen killed 23 members of an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq after stopping their bus and separating followers of other faiths, as car bombings in the capital killed at least another 20 people.

Two suicide car bombers attacked a police station in a residential area of Baghdad today, killing at least 13 people and wounding 82, police said.

At least 10 people were killed today when a car bomb exploded in a mixed neighbourhood of western Baghdad, Iraqi police said.

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 series of bombings struck predominantly Shiite areas in Baghdad today, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens, police said, as insurgents persist in their relentless bid to terrorise the capital in the final days before US and Iraqi soldiers plan to begin a massive crackdown.

A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in one of Baghdad’s busiest market areas today, killing at least four people and wounding 18, Iraqi police said.

Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the Iraqi government said.

A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in western Baghdad today, killing one policeman and wounding five others.