Two people have been detained in connection with the kidnapping of two Algerian diplomats last week, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said today.

Iraq has asked the UN Security Council to condemn the recent spate of bombings and attacks.

Gunmen killed four policemen and wounded at least nine more in separate attacks in Baghdad today. The reputed leader of al Qaida in Iraq said the country’s security forces were as great an enemy as the Americans and brushed aside calls to abandon the insurgency.

Gunmen assassinated a top aide to Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s Cabinet in Baghdad today, police said.

Militants exploded three bombs today in the Iraqi capital, killing at least one civilian and wounding eight others, officials said of the latest in a string of deadly attacks across Baghdad.

Nine people died and 14 were seriously wounded in a gas tanker explosion in west Baghdad just hours after a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

A CAR bomb exploded yesterday near the Ministry of Education in a busy Baghdad commercial area, killing at least eight people and wounding 29 others, officials said.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in Baghdad today and seized an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqi guards after a gunbattle in which two people were killed.