Co-ordinated car bombings targeting Shiite pilgrims in four Iraqi cities killed at least 56 people today in the latest wave of sectarian-fuelled violence, officials said.

THE enormous cache of secret war logs disclosed by the WikiLeaks website paints a picture of an Iraq burdened by persistent sectarian tension and meddling neighbours, suggesting that the country could drift into chaos once US forces leave.

THE last desperate radio message from an RAF Hercules shot down in Iraq was heard at the inquest into the deaths of the 10 servicemen on board yesterday.

A car bomb exploded today near an Iraqi checkpoint in a market north of Baghdad, killing at least 23 civilians and wounding 25, the US military said.

The US military today said it has no indication that the al Qaida in Iraq leader was killed or wounded in a raid north of Baghdad, while an Iraqi army officer said his deputy has been jailed south of Baghdad for a week.

The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was wounded and an aide was killed in a clash today with Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Gunmen burst into two houses belonging to a Sunni Muslim family north east of Baghdad today, killing 14 relatives, police said.

Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer today implored world leaders to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying the former dictator should enjoy protect from his enemies as a “prisoner of war".

Somalia's Islamic movement abandoned the nation's capital today and clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control of Mogadishu, as government forces approached to within 18 miles.

Police in Iraq today confirmed the kidnapping of more than 40 Shiites along a notoriously dangerous road just north of Baghdad.

The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah today in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Iraq's government indefinitely postponed a much-anticipated national reconciliation conference today as at least 83 people were reported dead in a two-day spree of sectarian revenge killings and insurgent bombings.

At least 12 people were killed in violence around Iraq today, while authorities found the decapitated corpses of seven people dumped north of Baghdad in what appeared to be a sectarian revenge killing.

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to an air base north of Baghdad today, saying that the new Iraqi government was not yet ready to decide on security issues that would determine the pace of American troop reductions this year.

An armed confrontation between two Iraqi army units left one soldier and one civilian dead, raising questions about the US-trained force’s ability to maintain control at a time when sectarian and ethnic tensions are running high.

US troops in Iraq killed 10 insurgents – three of them wearing suicide vests - in a raid today as American forces stepped up the hunt for terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Prosecutors in the Baghdad trial of Saddam Hussein today played an audiotape said to be a phone call between the former Iraqi leader and one of his co-defendants discussing the destruction of farmlands during a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s.

Insurgents blew up a small Shiite mosque north-east of Baghdad today, while police reported the discovery of nearly 40 bodies in several neighbourhoods of the Iraqi capital. The US military reported the death of three American soldiers.

On the day of the first session of Iraq’s new parliament today, and within days of the third anniversary of the US-led invasion, the country lie under the shadow of a feared civil war and politicians report a stalemate over the next government.

A WAVE of sectarian rage swept across Iraq yesterday leaving at least 110 people dead and the violence-wracked country careering towards civil war.

Gunmen attacked a group of Iraqis working on a farm north of Baghdad today, killing 11 and wounding two.

FOUR peace activists taken hostage in Iraq were shown in an insurgent video broadcast on Arab television yesterday, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

A suicide attacker killed at least 15 people and wounded 20 more in a Shiite funeral procession today north of Baghdad, while a car bomb exploded near a market just outside the capital killing 13 people and wounding 21, police said.

A car bomb killed at least 13 people and wounded 21 today when it exploded near a market outside the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Iraqi police have arrested four people in connection with the suicide bombing of two mosques near the Iranian border which killed at least 76 people, one of them a possible third suicide bomber, police said today.

A roadside bomb aimed at a US military convoy in Iraq’s Triangle of Death hit a minibus today, killing five Iraqis and wounding six, police said.

Capping the bloodiest month for American troops since January, the US military reported that seven more US service members were killed – all victims of increasingly sophisticated bombs that have been become the deadliest weapon in the insurgents’ arsenal.

THE US military said six American soldiers were killed in two bombings yesterday, making October one of the deadliest months for US troops in Iraq this year.

A BOMB exploded at the entrance of a Shi'ite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad as hundreds gathered for prayers on the first day of Ramadan and for the funeral of a man killed in an earlier bombing.

Sunni insurgents in Iraq hit two Shiite towns in two days with brutal bombings that killed more than 110 people, apparently aiming to scare Shiites away from a crucial vote on Iraq’s new constitution.

SUNNI-LED insurgents killed at least 10 people with a car bomb in a crowded vegetable market yesterday as Iraqi security forces said they had captured a woman wearing explosives hidden under her clothes.

Sunni-led insurgents killed at least nine people, including women and children, with a car bomb in a crowded vegetable market in the town of Hillah today, in the second blast against Shiites in as many days, police said.

AT least 60 people were massacred when three suicide attackers detonated car bombs almost simultaneously in a mainly Shi’ite town north of Baghdad last night.

Three suicide car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in a city north of Baghdad today, killing and wounding scores of people, hospital officials said.

Insurgents assassinated a Kurdish member of parliament and police found 20 bodies shot to death and dumped in the Tigris River 50 miles north of the capital, where there was no major violence for the first time in five days.

Former hostage Roy Hallums – who was rescued on Wednesday from an isolated farmhouse near Baghdad – left Iraq for the US today, the military said.

US TROOPS killed 10 insurgents north of Baghdad yesterday, while 10 Iraqi troops died in two separate attacks in a surge of violence following a relative lull last week.

US troops killed 10 insurgents in an ethnically-mixed city north of Baghdad, while 10 Iraqi troops died in two separate attacks north-east of the capital in a surge of violence following a relative lull last week.

SUICIDE car bomb killed an Iraqi Shi’ite politician and three others near Baghdad as they were heading to parliament yesterday in an attack likely to further fuel tensions between the minority Sunni Arabs and the country’s Shi’ite majority.

A BOMB exploded outside a bank in the northern city of Kirkuk yesterday, killing at least 22 people, including child street vendors and pensioners waiting for their checks.

At least 10 people, including a suicide bomber, were killed in an overnight suicide bombing in a remote village north of Baghdad, officials said today.

A suicide car bomber was among 11 people killed in an attack north of Baghdad, Iraqi police and hospital officials said today.

US forces in Iraq, already implicated in the killing of an Italian secret agent, faced further strains with allies yesterday when Bulgaria said they had probably shot dead one of its soldiers.

Rebels launched a series of attacks in Iraq today that left at least 24 people dead and dozens wounded as the country took its first major step toward forming a government whose most crucial task will be dealing with the insurgency.