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 roadside bomb killed three American soldiers and wounded another in Baghdad, the US military said today.

Iraqi security forces are doing everything they can to protect victims of sectarian violence in Baghdad, including families that are being driven from their homes in mixed neighbourhoods of Shiites and Sunni Arabs, a government official said today.

US and Iraqi forces swept into Baghdad’s Sadr City Shiite slum in an early morning raid today, killing four Iraqis, wounding eight and detaining five, police said.

At least 20 people were killed and 41 injured today in scattered violence around Iraq, including a mortar attack on the Health Ministry followed by a car bombing targeting a police patrol.

Six people were killed and 25 injured today in scattered violence around Iraq, including a mortar attack on the Health Ministry and a car bombing targeting a police patrol in Baghdad.

A barrage of co-ordinated bomb and rocket attacks in eastern Baghdad killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 200 within half an hour, police and hospital officials said.

Kidnapped Sunni MP Tayseer al-Mashhadani was released today after being held for nearly two months, an adviser to the Iraqi Prime Minister said.

The head of Saddam Hussein’s tribe was killed when gunmen attacked a meeting in the office of a prominent sheikh in Tikrit, police said today.

US President George Bush, spending his Independence Day holiday with American fighting forces, said US troops will overcome persistent violence in Iraq and a rekindled insurgency in Afghanistan because the enemy is vulnerable.

As Iraqis awaited the inauguration of their new national unity government, roadside bombs and other attacks killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 26 people today, including a US soldier riding through Baghdad in a minesweeper.

THE political impasse over Iraq’s new government tightened yesterday as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s party indicated it was standing firm for him to keep the post despite opposition from Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s party will stick by him as the Shiite nominee for a second term and will put forward the name of a new candidate only if the premier decides to step aside, a top party official said today.

The Muslim pilgrims’ road to the holy city of Karbala became a highway of bullets and bombs for Shiites yesterday. Drive-by shootings and roadside and bus bombs killed or wounded 19 people, ratcheting up the sectarian tensions gripping Iraq.

A SUICIDE bomber and a car bomb ripped apart a market yesterday in a Shi’ite slum in Baghdad, killing at least 39 people and wounding more than 100.

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.

Bomb blasts, rocket and gunfire killed at least 10 people and injured 23 in the Iraqi capital today, police said.

A suicide truck bomb today ripped through a line of vehicles waiting at a checkpoint in Fallujah and killed at least seven Iraqi civilians.

A large explosion in east Baghdad today set fire to a US tank, said Iraqi police Lt. Ali Abbas.

Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam Hussein regime and abducted 50 hostages.

At least 24 bodies – many of them strangled – were found dumped in parts of Baghdad, Iraqi police said today.

Sunnis and Shiites have traded bombings and mortar fire against mainly religious targets in Baghdad, killing at least 68 people after authorities lifted a curfew that had briefly calmed a series of sectarian reprisal attacks.

Gunmen killed two relatives of a senior Kurdish official and 14 others died in a string of bombings and shootings overnight and today, shattering three days of relative calm that followed the country’s first election for a full-term parliament.

An empty minibus loaded with explosives detonated near a hospital in east Baghdad today, killing three people and injuring 13, police said.

US and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house yesterday, the third day of an assault against al-Qaida-led militants in a town near the Syrian border as the US command reported the first American death in the operation.

US and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least eight Iraqis in an east Baghdad slum yesterday.

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.

A leading Sunni cleric called for religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against violence as Iraq endured a third consecutive day of sectarian killings - the worst, a suicide car bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed at least 12 worshippers.

Three workers were killed and a dozen wounded in east Baghdad early today in a drive-by shooting by unidentified gunmen, police said.

THE US military yesterday announced the capture of a key suspect in the murder of Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif.

In a rare statement against violence, al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly issued a statement today denying it was behind a horrific attack on a poor east Baghdad neighbourhood that killed 18 children and teenagers.

A suicide car bomber sped to American soldiers as they distributed sweets to children and detonated his vehicle today, killing up to 27 other people, US and Iraqi officials said.

A suicide car bomber drove up to a US vehicle crowded with Iraqi children and detonated his vehicle today, killing one American soldier and at least seven Iraqi children, the US military said.

A US soldier was killed when his patrol unit struck a roadside bomb in east Baghdad today the US military said.

Car bombers have struck twice in rapid succession in Baghdad, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier, as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that violence may increase before the January election.

TWO car bombs shook the capital in quick succession yesterday, killing at least 11 people, including an American soldier, and wounding 16.

Car bombers struck twice in rapid succession in the Iraqi capital today, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier and wounding at least 16.

US aircraft and tanks attacked rebel positions as fierce fighting erupted early today in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum, killing 10 people and injuring 92 others, hospital officials said.

US aircraft and tanks attacked rebel positions as fierce fighting erupted early today in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum.

A ROADSIDE bomb killed three US Marines and wounded two others yesterday in the first fatal attack on American forces since the transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, US officials said.

Five US soldiers were killed and five wounded in a blast in east Baghdad today.

Five people were killed when a car bomb exploded in front of the home of a senior Iraqi security official in east Baghdad today, the US military and Iraqi police said.

AN American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb which ripped through his Humvee in Baghdad yesterday and at least two civilians died in shooting afterwards.

A suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car outside the house of an Iraqi police chief today, killing himself and wounding seven others.