A ferry overloaded with people celebrating the Kurdish new year has sunk in the Tigris river near the Iraqi city of Mosul, killing at least 45 people, an official said.

Iraqi officials say they believe government forces have killed the last remaining Saddam Hussein henchman on the run in Iraq.

US and Iraqi troops recaptured police stations and secured bridges in the northern city of Mosul in an offensive aimed at pushing out fighters supporting the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.

Militants killed a top official in Iraq’s defence ministry in a drive by shooting as he walked into his Baghdad home.

US and British warplanes attacked a ”civilian and services installation” in northern Iraq today, killing one civilian, the official Iraqi News Agency claimed.