A suicide car bomber targeted a line of vehicles stopped at a checkpoint in western Iraq today, killing eight people and wounding 16, police and hospital officials said.

US forces targeting militants believed to have kidnapped two coalition soldiers raided the main Shiite district in Baghdad today. At least 13 people were killed, including a woman and children, Iraqi officials said.

American forces raided radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s stronghold in Baghdad and killed five suspected militia fighters in air strikes today, a day after he resurfaced to end nearly four months in hiding and demand US troops leave Iraq, .

At least 32 people were killed and 50 wounded when a parked car bomb exploded in a Shiite enclave north-east of Baghdad.

At least 32 people were killed and 50 wounded when a parked car bomb exploded in a Shiite enclave north-east of Baghdad.

Three Iraqi insurgents were killed and three others injured when US-led forces conducted a raid early today in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City.

US soldiers destroyed two buildings being used by insurgents in a town in Anbar province, killing six militants, two women and a boy believed to be under two, the military said today.

Three parked car bombs exploded in central Baghdad today near a predominantly Shiite area packed with vendors, killing at least 43 people and wounding 91, officials said.

Iraq’s prime minister distanced himself from a raid by US and Iraqi forces today on Sadr City – the stronghold of the Shiite militia led by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr.

Eight bodies with signs of torture were found in Baghdad today, more apparent victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.

Seven bodies with signs of torture were found in Baghdad today, more apparent victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.

Shiite militiamen drove back Iraqi forces in a city south of Baghdad today in fierce street fighting that killed 40 people.

A surge in bloodshed left nearly 50 people dead in a suicide car bombing and clashes between Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces today, in a brutal contradiction of the prime minister’s claim that violence was decreasing.

POLICE in Baghdad yesterday found the bodies of at least 85 men killed execution style in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian killing, according to the Interior Ministry.

Rory Carroll could be re-united with his family as early as today.

The bodies of 13 blindfolded and bound men were found shot multiple times in the head execution style in Baghdad’s Sadr City today.

A car bomb exploded today in central Iraq, killing five people, including four police officers on patrol, while gunmen killed an education official in Baghdad.

FOLLOWERS of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr trickled in to police stations in Baghdad's Sadr City district to hand in weapons yesterday as a suicide car bomb killed at least one US soldier and two Iraqis.

US military officials and representatives of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held talks today aimed at reducing violence in the restive Baghdad slum of Sadr City, a day after clashes there killed 10 people, officials said.

IRAQ’S most powerful Shi’ite cleric arrived home from Britain yesterday and his aides called for a nationwide march to Najaf to end nearly three weeks of fierce fighting between US forces and Shi’ite militants in the holy city.

British forces clashed with a rebel Shiite cleric’s militia which had threatened to unleash 1,000 fighters in Basra today unless four arrested men were freed.

THE kidnappers of a Philippine hostage in Iraq have extended by nine days their deadline for Manila to withdraw its troops or see him executed, a senior diplomat said yesterday.

THREE American soldiers and over 40 fighters loyal to a radical cleric were killed in another day of widespread bloodshed in Iraq yesterday.

At least 22 Iraqis, eight US troops and one Salvadoran soldier died in one of the worst days of violence in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein