Dozens of Shiite villagers in northern Iraq were massacred by Sunni extremists, officials said today, while car bombs killed at least a dozen people in Baghdad.

IRANIAN intelligence operatives have been training Iraqi fighters inside Iran on how to use and assemble deadly roadside bombs known as EFPs, the US military spokesman said yesterday.

A WOMAN with explosives hidden beneath her black abaya detonated them yesterday in a crowd of about 200 police recruits north-east of Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, police said.

Snipers firing from rooftops and a cemetery today killed at least 16 people and injured 230 in a series of attacks on a religious procession in Baghdad, officials said.

Sniper attacks on a Shiite religious procession left 10 pilgrims dead and 43 injured in several places in Baghdad today.