A triple bombing hit the main Baghdad office of an anti-Western Shiite cleric today in the deadliest of a series of attacks across Iraq that killed more than 40 people and wounded another 200.

British troops took control of the offices of Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern Iraqi city of Basra today after clashing with militants loyal to the rebel cleric.

An American army officer accused of murdering a rebel Iraqi cleric’s driver claims he shot him out of compassion.

REBEL Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s gunmen removed their weapons from the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf yesterday in a step aimed at ending the two-week-old uprising.

Militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr removed their weapons from the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf today as a two-week-old uprising centred on the holy site appeared to be drawing to an end.