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.

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.

Two bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad today, killing a total of five people and wounding more than 10, police said.

The official start to Ramadan was punctuated with violent attacks around Iraq today, including an assault on a police station and the discovery of more apparent victims of sectarian death squads in the capital.

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.

A Russian Embassy official in Baghdad said today that one diplomat was killed and four diplomatic employees were abducted in the Iraqi capital.

A bomb killed 19 people and wounded 58 in a Shiite district of Baghdad today as parliament prepared to inaugurate the country’s first fully constitutional government since the collapse of Saddam Hussein three years ago.

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.

Bombs and drive-by shootings killed nine people in Iraq today, and the bodies of seven Iraqi men who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured in captivity were found in three different areas of Baghdad, police said.

A car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Iraq today killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, police said.

A three-day holiday began for Sunni Arabs in Iraq today, ending a month of fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and unusual signs of celebration emerged in war-torn cities such as Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

A SUICIDE car bomb south of Baghdad killed 22 Iraqis and wounded at least 60 in Baghdad yesterday and four US troops were killed - two in a helicopter crash Wednesday and two from a roadside bomb.

A suicide car bomb killed 20 Iraqis and wounded 46 in a town south Baghdad today.

A suicide bomber on a motorbike today killed himself and six other people in the Iraqi city of Musayyib, south of Baghdad.

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

Gunmen killed three policemen and a government worker walking to work in Baghdad, officials said today, one day after four suicide car bombings killed 22 people.

NEW suicide bombings killed at least 22 people in the Baghdad area yesterday, while relatives struggled to identify charred bodies from a fiery suicide attack near a Shi’ite mosque in Musayyib that killed more than 90 people.

Four suicide car bombers targeted Iraqi and US security patrols today, killing 19 people in the latest surge of suicide attacks, police said.

Suicide car bombers attacked two Iraqi police patrols in the capital today, killing 10 people, including five members of Iraqi security forces, police said.

A suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body today at a gas station near a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad, triggering a huge explosion in a fuel tanker and killing at least 54 people and injuring 82, police said.

SUICIDE car bomb killed an Iraqi Shi’ite politician and three others near Baghdad as they were heading to parliament yesterday in an attack likely to further fuel tensions between the minority Sunni Arabs and the country’s Shi’ite majority.

Iraqi insurgents fired at least six mortar rounds towards a US military base today, but hit a bus station instead, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding 21, officials said.

INSURGENTS gunned down a neighborhood police chief and set off a suicide bomb near a patrol guarding a holy shrine, part of a series of attacks yesterday targeting Iraqi security forces that left at least eight people dead, including four police officers.

Insurgents gunned down a neighbourhood police chief and set off a suicide bomb near a patrol guarding a holy shrine, part of a series of attacks today targeting Iraqi security forces and leaving at least eight people dead, including four police officers.

IN Iraq’s bloodiest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a suicide car bomber blew himself up next to dozens of police and national guard recruits yesterday, killing at least 125 people and wounding 130.

In Iraq’s bloodiest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a suicide car bomber blew himself up next to dozens of police and national guard recruits today, killing at least 125 people and wounding 130.

At least 106 people were killed today when a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd applying for work at a government office south of Baghdad, then blew himself up.

A suicide car bomber killed 25 people and wounded 71 others in a massive blast south of the Iraqi capital this morning, a senior Interior Ministry official said.

Two car bombs have exploded south of Iraq’s capital, inflicting dozens of casualties, police and witnesses said today.

US troops captured a key lieutenant of Iraqi rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr during overnight clashes in Najaf that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 50.

Two Russian workers held hostage in Iraq for a week were freed today, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing souces in the company that employs the men.

The Arab news network Al Jazeera today broadcast footage of two Russian hostages held in Iraq, and read a statement from a group that demanded foreign troops withdraw from the country.

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Chris Tomlinson US TROOPS seized Baghdad’s international airport last night after pushing through the outskirts of the darkened capital.

American troops battered through Saddam Hussein’s forces south of Baghdad today and were near the international airport, 12 miles from the city centre.