Militants have unleashed attacks on Iraq’s majority Shia community, killing at least 33 people.

Signs emerged of a reprisal sectarian slaughter of Sunnis in Iraq, as police said pro-government Shi’ite militiamen killed nearly four dozen detainees after insurgents tried to storm a jail and free them north-east of Baghdad.

Islamic militants have vowed to march on Baghdad to settle old scores after seizing a number of cities and towns in Iraq.

A new wave of insurgent attacks, mostly car bombs targeting Shiite-dominated cities in central and southern Iraq, killed at least 35 people today, officials said.

At least 22 people were killed as insurgents unleashed a string of bomb attacks across Iraq, mainly targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims, extending a wave of deadly bloodshed into a second day.

A car bomb explosion tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims returning home from a religious commemoration in Iraq killing at least 20, officials said.

Three people have been killed and 21 others injured by a car bomb blast south of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said today.

A wave of bombings has left at least 43 people dead in Iraq.

At least six people have been killed and 20 others injured in a car bomb blast in Iraq’s heartland Shiite province south of Baghdad, police and health officials said today.

Market blasts and other bombings across Iraq killed at least 33 people and wounded nearly 100 today, spurring security officials to clamp down on traffic as Shiite Muslims brace for more tragedy during pilgrimages this week.

At least 33 people have been killed in a series of blasts in Iraq, officials said today.

Eight people have been killed and 45 others injured in a series of blasts in central Iraq, officials said today.

A wave of car bombings targeting Shia pilgrims has killed at least 65 people and wounded another 200 in several cities across Iraq, in one of the deadliest attacks since US troops withdrew from the country.

Co-ordinated car bombings targeting Shiite pilgrims in four Iraqi cities killed at least 56 people today in the latest wave of sectarian-fuelled violence, officials said.

A wave of bombings and shootings across eight Iraqi cities today, targeting police and Shiite pilgrims, killed 46 people.

Bombings across Iraq killed 44 people today, striking at police and Shiite pilgrims in a torrent of violence that officials had dreaded in the run-up to a meeting in Baghdad of the Arab world’s top leaders, which the government hoped would showcase the nation’s stability.

Twenty-eight people were killed and more than 100 others injured in bombings across Iraq today in a spate of violence that officials had dreaded in the days before Baghdad hosts the Arab world’s top leaders.

Three car bombs exploded today in Baghdad, killing at least 17 people, authorities said.

A roadside bomb has killed two Shiite pilgrims and wounded eight south of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

A WAVE of bombings targeting Shi’ites in Iraq have killed 72 people, deepening sectarian tensions that exploded after the last American troops left the country in mid- December.

More than 50 people have died in bomb attacks in Iraq, officials say.

Twenty-one people were killed and nearly 100 others injured today when five bombs struck Shiite pilgrims during an important religious ritual for the Muslim sect.

A series of blasts hit a Shiite holy city in Iraq today, killing at least 10 people and wounding scores of others.

BOMB blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities yesterday morning, killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year.

Bombs ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities today killing scores of people in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan.

Two separate blasts killed five people and wounded nearly three dozen today, officials said, in the latest reminder of the violence and instability in the country as US troops prepare to leave.

A bomb hidden in an rickshaw has killed two Muslim Shiite pilgrims and wounded 26 others south of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said today.

At least six leading opposition activists have been detained in the continuing crackdown on protesters in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, reports say.

Two car bombs tore through car parks packed with Shia pilgrims today in an Iraqi holy city, pushing the death toll from a week of attacks to more than 170.

A car bomb killed six pilgrims today in the latest deadly attack on Shias on their way to mark religious rituals in a holy Iraqi city, police and hospital officials said.

The death toll in a new spate of bombings on Shiite pilgrims in Iraq has risen to 56, officials said today.

AT least 51 people died when a pair of car bombs blasted through security checkpoints ringing the Iraqi holy city of Karbala yesterday.

At least 51 people died when a pair of car bombs blasted through security checkpoints ringing the Iraqi holy city of Karbala today.

At least 35 people have been killed by roadside bombs planted along a pilgrims’ route to the Shiite holy city of Karbala in Iraq, officials say.

At least seven people were killed in a car bomb blast in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, Iraqi officials said today.

A string of more than a dozen attacks on Iraqi security forces from one end of the country to the other killed 22 people and left scores wounded on today.

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb today alongside a crowd of Shia pilgrims, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 70, Iraqi police officials said.

At least 20 Shia pilgrims were killed today in a car bomb explosion on the outskirts of the southern holy city of Karbala, an Iraqi police official said.

At least 20 Shia pilgrims were killed today in a bomb blast near the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, officials said.

A FEMALE suicide bomber walking among Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad detonated an explosives belt yesterday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 122, officials said.

A woman suicide bomber killed at least 41 people in an attack on Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad today.

A suicide bomber targeting Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad killed at least 13 people today.

Preparations were today under way for the return to the UK of former hostage Peter Moore after his release yesterday from two and a half years of captivity in Iraq.

IRAQI security forces conducted searches at checkpoints in the capital yesterday as authorities investigated the security failure that allowed two truck bombs to strike what was one of Baghdad’s safest areas and kill 155 people.