Syria’s opposition has demanded an independent investigation into the bombing which killed 25 people at a busy Damascus junction, blaming forces loyal to the regime for the atrocity – the second major attack in the capital in as many weeks.

A US military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted al-Qaida in Iraq leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for the bombing deaths of five American soldiers, a spokesman said today.

INSURGENTS determined to wreck Iraq’s constitutional referendum killed nearly 45 people and wounded dozens in a series of attacks yesterday, including a suicide car bomb that ripped apart a crowded market in a town near the Syrian border, police said.

A SUICIDE bomber lured a crowd of Shi’ite Muslim day labourers to his minivan and blew it up in Baghdad yesterday, killing 114 people in the bloodiest of a wave of attacks which killed more than 150 across the capital.

Pirate Irwin, Paris