A parked car bomb struck a Shiite slum in Baghdad today, killing at least two people and wounding three.

Four US Marines died in a pair of roadside bombings in western Iraq’s volatile Anbar province, the military said today. Another explosion killed two Iraqi civilians south of Baghdad.

About 1,000 US troops backed by Iraqi soldiers have launched a counterinsurgency operation in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Insurgents attacked several US bases and government offices with mortars and rockets today before dispersing in Ramadi, the capital of western Iraq’s Anbar province.

US AND Iraqi troops launched an operation in western Iraq yesterday to clear insurgents from a suspected safe area used to make car and roadside bombs.

The body of a defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial was found dumped in the street with two bullet wounds in the head hours after gunmen dragged him from his office, terrorising the defence team, who today demanded the trial be further postponed or even moved out of Iraq.

A US MARINE amphibious assault vehicle on patrol during combat operations near the Syrian border hit a roadside bomb yesterday, and 14 marines were killed in one of the deadliest single attacks in Iraq against US forces.

Fourteen US Marines and a civilian interpreter were killed early today in western Iraq, the US command said.

THE US military said yesterday that seven marines had been killed by insurgents in western Iraq, pushing the death toll for Americans since the start of the war past 1,800.

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.

Sinan Salahedin, Baghdad

Insurgents mounted attacks against Arab and Muslim diplomats in Iraq today, wounding Bahrain’s top envoy in a kidnapping attempt. Pakistan’s ambassador also escaped an assault on his convoy.

A suicide car bomb killed an Iraqi Shiite politician and three others near Baghdad as they were heading to parliament today, an attack likely to further fuel tensions between the minority Sunni Arabs and the country’s Shiite majority.

More than 1,000 US troops and Iraqi forces launched Operation Sword today in a bid to crush insurgents and foreign fighters in western Iraq, making it the third major offensive in the area in recent weeks.

Iraqi militants claimed today they took a Japanese security contractor hostage after ambushing a convoy of foreigners and Iraqi troops in western Iraq.

Four Iraqis were killed in a US airstrike in central Iraq while five American soldiers and an Iraqi civilian were wounded in a car bomb explosion north of Baghdad, according to reports.

A SUICIDE car bomber ploughed into policemen waiting to collect their salary at a police station west of Ramadi yesterday, killing 12 people in the latest insurgent attack on Iraq’s beleaguered security forces.

US forces pounded parts of Fallujah from the air and ground yesterday, targeting insurgents in a city where American forces were said to be gearing up for a major offensive.

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.

Iraq has re-entered the world oil market with its first shipment of crude since the war, but sabotage and looting along its largest pipeline delayed the flow of freshly pumped oil – the key to the reconstruction of an economy devastated by sanctions and war.

IRAQ re-entered the world oil market yesterday with its first shipment of crude since the war, but sabotage and looting along its largest pipeline delayed the flow of freshly pumped oil — the key to the reconstruction of an economy devastated by sanctions and war.

A GRENADE attack killed a US soldier in Iraq yesterday as a pipeline fire blazed on after an overnight explosion described by an Oil Ministry official as sabotage.

An oil pipeline exploded and caught fire west of Baghdad today, sending flames shooting high into the sky, the US military said.