THE contrast between Iraq’s Kurdish provinces and the insurgency-racked cities to the south is evident in the 100 or so labourers gathered at the main square of this Kurdish town, looking for work.

Plumes of black smoke rose above the embattled city of Najaf today after American warplanes bombed insurgent positions overnight and supporters of a radical cleric charged that shrapnel from a US attack had hit parts of the Imam Ali Shrine. The military denied the claim.

The retired American general given the huge task of reconstructing post-war Iraq today visited the country’s northern Kurdish region.

COALITION forces suffered setbacks in southern Iraq yesterday despite moving within 50 miles of Baghdad.

HEAVY explosions, air raid sirens and the crackle of anti-aircraft fire thundered through Baghdad last night as the Iraqi capital faced a second night of US-led attacks.

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up near the home of a prominent Kurdish politician in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq tonight, officials said.

An Islamic militant group detonated a bomb at a military checkpoint in northern Iraq today, killing five people, Kurdish officials and witnesses said.