US and Iraqi forces killed 11 suspected militants and captured 64 others in two days of raids across central and northern Iraq, officials said today.

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 in Iraq shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad today as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine yesterday.

Four US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division have been killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US military said today.