A RELENTLESS barrage of bombings killed 63 people yesterday in the most sweeping and coordinated attack Iraq has seen in over a year, striking 17 cities from northern Sunni areas to the southern Shi’ite heartland.

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.

A total of 34 people were killed when two bombs exploded in a market in a city south-east of Baghdad, an Iraqi medical official has said.

Dozens of people were killed today when two car bombs and a suicide bomber struck outside a textile factory.

Bombings and drive-by shootings killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more today around Iraq.

IRAQ’S prime minister denounced a deadly US raid yesterday as a “crime” that violated the security pact with Washington.

Iraqi forces battled with Shiite militia today for control of the southern oil port of Basra.

At least eight people were killed today by a suicide bomber targeting a gathering of Iraqi soldiers and civilians commemorating Army Day in central Baghdad.

US TROOPS killed 11 members of a Mahdi army splinter group yesterday, US officials said. The military also announced that it had detained two more suspects in the capture of three US soldiers earlier this year.

Two separate suicide attacks in Iraq killed at least 34 people and wounded scores more today, shattering more than a week of relative calm.

AN IRAQI journalist said yesterday that gunmen went on a killing spree in his Baghdad home, murdering seven children and four adult relatives, but Iraq’s interior ministry denied the attack took place.

A bomb exploded today in a predominantly Shiite area south-east of Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 13 others, police and hospital officials said.

Sporadic gunfire echoed through the centre of Karbala in Iraq early today after clashes between rival Shiite militias claimed up to 51 lives.

A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned today, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected al Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of a revered Shiite shrine.

US and Iraqi forces freed 42 Iraqis – some of whom had been held and tortured for months – in a raid on an al-Qaida prison in Iraq, the US military said.

US forces raided an al-Qaida hide-out north-east of Baghdad today and freed 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones, a senior U.S. military official said.

British forces stepped up pressure on Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra, killing three in an overnight operation, the US and British military said today.

A car bombed ripped through a commercial district in western Baghdad today, killing 25 people and wounding at least 80 others, in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in recent days.

The bullet-riddled body of a kidnapped Iraqi mayor was found dumped on a road today, police and morgue officials said.

More than 700 additional US troops arrived in Iraq’s increasingly volatile Diyala province today, to try to quell burgeoning violence just north-east of Baghdad.

US troops arrested the son of Iraq’s top Shiite politician today as he returned to the country from Iran, it was reported today.

Gunmen killed a Shiite tribal sheikh linked to British forces in a drive-by shooting today in the southern city of Basra, while two US Marines were reported killed in fighting in a volatile province west of Baghdad.

At least eight people were killed by a pair of car bombs that tore through shoppers in central Baghdad today, while a Slovak and Polish soldier were reported killed overnight by a roadside bomb south of the capital.

Iraq’s prime minister distanced himself from a raid by US and Iraqi forces today on Sadr City – the stronghold of the Shiite militia led by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr.

Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning yesterday at a base in southern Iraq after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast.

A suicide truck bomb crashed into a Baghdad police headquarters today, killing seven and wounding at least double that many in a deadly 24 hours that saw more than 45 killings in Iraq, including two American soldiers, authorities said.

A 56-year-old Kurdish-American woman told of seeing people sickened and dying during an alleged chemical attack carried out by Saddam Hussein’s forces, as the genocide trial of the ex-president resumed today.

Gunmen have killed at least nine people in separate attacks in northern Iraq and in the capital Baghdad.

Authorities found 35 bullet-riddled bodies, nearly all showing signs of torture, dumped around Baghdad and in a southern Iraqi city today.

A suicide bomber detonated a belt of explosives near a highly-revered Shiite shrine in southern Iraq today, killing at least 33 people and injuring 108.

Iraq’s prime minister sharply criticised a US-Iraqi attack on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, exposing a rift with his American partners on security tactics, as 24 people were killed today in a series of bombings and shooting.

Two dozen people have died in a surge of violence in northern Iraq, including 10 at a football game hit by a suicide car bombing, police said, while the country’s spiralling sectarian and political bloodshed killed at least 19 others elsewhere.

Two brothers serving in Iraq’s police forces were killed today when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle as they returned home in southeastern Baghdad, police said.

A string of early morning bombings near a technology university in Baghdad today killed five people and injured 18 others, police said.

A rubbish collector and a Baghdad University security chief were killed today - among the latest victims of seemingly random violence in Iraq as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki steps up his efforts to bring insurgents into the political process.

At least 25 people have been murdered in gangland-style killings in Iraq’s third-largest city this week.

Iraqi police stormed a farm north of Baghdad early today and freed at least 17 people who were snatched a day earlier in a mass kidnapping of 64 workers and family members at the end of a factory shift.

As Iraqis awaited the inauguration of their new national unity government, roadside bombs and other attacks killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 26 people today, including a US soldier riding through Baghdad in a minesweeper.

Two Iraqi journalists were found dead south of Baghdad today a day after they were stopped by men wearing police uniforms, the manager of their television station said.

A BOMB attack on one of Iraq's most revered Shi'ite shrines yesterday spawned mass protests and reprisal attacks against dozens of Sunni mosques.

A roadside bomb exploded near a primary school in a predominantly-Shiite area in southern Iraq today, killing two boys and injuring four others.

The bodies of 36 men – all but one wearing traditional Kurdish trousers – were discovered today in a dry river bed near Iraq’s border with Iran.

AIDES of a radical Shi’ite cleric met yesterday with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq, while gunmen killed a top trade ministry official as a spree of violence that followed the announcement of a new government entered its fourth week.

Iraqi authorities have released a top official in Saddam Hussein’s former regime because he was suffering from serious health problems, Iraq’s Justice Minister said today.