Eighteen people were killed and more than 50 injured when bombs struck two Sunni towns at sundown, just as Iraqis were preparing to break their holy day’s fast.

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.

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

Four people died when a car bomb exploded next to an Iraqi military patrol south of Baghdad today.

Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at voters in Iraq today, killing 36 people in attacks aimed at intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have plagued it since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Iraqis voted today in an election testing the mettle of the country’s still-fragile democracy as insurgents killed 25 people across the Iraq, unleashing a barrage of mortars intent on disrupting the historic day.

A car bomb exploded today at a market south of Baghdad in a region that was once the scene of frequent attacks on Shiites, killing seven people and wounding 21 others, police and hospital officials said.

A FORMER US soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi teenager and murdering her family was spared the death penalty after jurors couldn’t agree on a punishment for the crime.

A former US soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi teenager and murdering her family was spared the death penalty after jurors couldn’t agree on a punishment for the brutal crime.

Soldiers in a former “triangle of death” Iraqi city have a new mission - confiscate all toy guns.

An Iraqi cameraman and three of his family were arrested by the US military during a raid on their Baghdad home, a television station said today.

Iraqi police said today clashes between Shiite militants and government security forces have resumed in at least two cities south of Baghdad.

A US soldier convicted of rape and murder in an attack on an Iraqi teenager and her family has been sentenced to 110 years in prison.

A military jury has found a soldier guilty of murder following the rape and death of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family.

Three US soldiers were killed and six others injured when a suicide bomber collapsed part of a road bridge in Iraq today.

Iraqi police today found the body of a man floating in the Euphrates River who was wearing what appeared to be a US military uniform.

An al-Qaida front group claims to have captured American soldiers in a deadly Iraq attack, as thousands of US troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

Bomb blasts in two areas of Iraq today left at least 49 people dead and dozens more wounded.

A parked car exploded near a market in central Baghdad on today, killing at last 11 people and wounding about 40, police said.

Seven US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter came under attack this morning in a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, leaving five dead and three missing, the military said.

A US soldier has been sentenced to 100 years in prison for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year.

A string of bombings killed 10 people in the Baghdad area today and the US announced a marine had died in fighting west of the Iraqi capital.

The US military today said it has no indication that the al Qaida in Iraq leader was killed or wounded in a raid north of Baghdad, while an Iraqi army officer said his deputy has been jailed south of Baghdad for a week.

A parked car bomb struck a commercial area in Iraq on Saturday, killing one civilian and wounding eight, police said.

A suicide bomber killed four civilians in a crowd outside a police station today in the northern Iraqi city Tal Afar, police said.

A soldier was sentenced to 90 years in prison with the possibility of parole in 20 years for conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill her and her family.

US troops killed 13 suspected insurgents in a raid south of Baghdad this morning, the military said.

FOUR soldiers from the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division will face a court-martial for the alleged rape of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her family, and two will face the death penalty, the military ordered yesterday.

At least 12 people were killed in violence around Iraq today, while authorities found the decapitated corpses of seven people dumped north of Baghdad in what appeared to be a sectarian revenge killing.

More than three dozen people were killed in violence around Iraq today, including a state TV employee, a judge and three people in a morning suicide attack on a fish market in Baghdad that wounded 19 others.

An al-Qaida-linked group posted a web video today purporting to show the bodies of two American soldiers being dragged behind a truck, then set on fire in apparent retaliation for the rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by US troops from the same unit.

Four American soldiers who face charges in connection with the rape and killing of 14-year-old girl and the murder of her family should face a court martial, a US Army investigator has recommended.

US MARINES being investigated over the killings of two dozen Iraqis last autumn in Haditha, most if not all of them civilians, appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, the New York Times newspaper reported yesterday.

US forces seized hundreds of mortar rounds and rockets in a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad today, and detained two suspected terrorists.

THREE back-to-back explosions killed 20 people and wounded more than 70 last night in a mostly Shi’ite neighbourhood in southern Baghdad, police said.

Thousands of Shiite youths, some armed, headed into Iraq’s capital Baghdad today for a pro-Hezbollah rally as skirmishes erupted with US troops that left at least three people dead, officials said. Fifteen rally-goers were wounded in a bus bombing.

Iraqi forces backed by a US helicopter battled Sunni gunmen south of Baghdad yesterday, and at least 11 combatants died. US troops killed five Iraqis - including two women and a child – in a separate exchange of fire.

IRAQ’S top Shi’ite cleric yesterday urged his followers to refrain from reprisal violence against Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian bloodshed.

A SUICIDE car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of labourers gathered across the street from a major Shi’ite shrine in southern Iraq yesterday, killing at least 53 people and wounding 105.

Gunmen sprayed grenades and automatic weapons fire in a market south of Baghdad, killing at least 50 people, mostly Shiites yesterday.

A Jordanian who was responsible for slaughtering two US soldiers last month was fatally wounded in a clash with security forces, a senior Iraqi official said today.

A suicide car bomber detonated explosives among a crowd of labourers across the street from a major Shiite shrine in southern Iraq today, killing 53 people and wounding 105.

A suicide car bomber detonated explosives among a crowd of labourers across the street from a major Shiite shrine in southern Iraq today, killing 43 people and wounding 64.

Dozens of heavily-armed attackers raided an open air market today in a tense town south of Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 42.