A SERIES of co-ordinated bombings targeted churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul during evening services yesterday, killed more than a dozen people.

A series of co-ordinated explosions rocked churches across Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul today in the first attacks targeting the country’s Christian minority during the 15-month violent insurgency.

THE Iraqi government issued a long-anticipated package of security laws yesterday to help crush insurgents, including a provision allowing interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to impose martial law.

Armed with rifles, Baghdad residents beat up looters and blockaded Baghdad streets today in an attempt to quell the pillaging and lawlessness running rampant in the Iraqi capital.

A GENERAL from Saddam Hussein’s army has been captured in southern Iraq and is being pressed to provide strategic information, British officers said yesterday.