IRAQ yesterday chose January 30, 2005 for its first democratic election in decades, but violence in Sunni Muslim areas underlined the challenge of holding polls on time.

IRAQIS reacted with anger and disbelief to news that British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan, who worked in Iraq for decades before being kidnapped a month ago, had been killed by her captors.

Aid worker Margaret Hassan was shown in three harrowing videos before her reported death at the hands of her Iraqi captors.

US aircraft blasted the rebel stronghold of Fallujah three times in 24 hours over the weekend in a concerted effort to hit militants loyal to guerrilla chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A VIDEO posted on a website last night showed the apparent beheading of American construction contractor Eugene Armstrong, said to have been carried out personally by key Iraq terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

US FORCES launched air strikes on Fallujah yesterday, targeting what they said was a meeting of key loyalists of their top foe in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

BLOODY turmoil reigned in Iraq yesterday, the first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's fall.

IRAQ'S US administrator began a 100-day countdown to Iraqi sovereignty yesterday by hailing progress since Saddam Hussein's removal, but fresh violence underlined the country's instability.

TWO Baghdad hotels used by foreign contractors, businesspeople and media organisations were shaken by explosions last night but US soldiers at the scene said there did not appear to be serious injuries.

A ROADSIDE bomb killed two US soldiers in Baghdad yesterday, hours after troops captured a former general in Saddam Hussein’s security services on charges of recruiting ex-soldiers to attack Americans.

A SUICIDE car bomber wounded 58 US soldiers and three Iraqis yesterday when he charged the gates of a US military base and blew up his vehicle as troops opened fire.

US soldiers raided homes and farmhouses in the hostile Sunni heartland around Baghdad yesterday, detaining dozens of suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists and saying the net was closing on the deposed dictator himself.

THE United States offered $25m yesterday for information leading to the capture of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein or confirmation of his death.

AN American soldier died of wounds suffered in an attack in Baghdad as Iraqis, angered by a deadly blast near a mosque west of the capital, yesterday vowed to wage holy war against US occupying forces.

US FORCES in Iraq detained 180 people in raids to stamp out resistance to their occupation as a reporter attached to an army unit became the latest casualty of the violence, the military said yesterday.

AN Australian newspaper yesterday claimed to have a tape of Saddam Hussein, recorded just days ago, urging Iraqis to rise up against the coalition forces occupying their country.

IRAQI mosque preachers sought to calm tensions with US troops yesterday and demanded that the United States establish a government to restore order after US President George W Bush declared the war over.

UN arms inspectors conducted a private interview with an Iraqi scientist yesterday and scoured 13 suspect weapons sites across Iraq.