A parked car rigged with a bomb exploded today in Baghdad’s eastern neighbourhood of Rashad, killing two civilian pedestrians and injuring five others.

Gunmen attacked two Sunni mosques today in Baghdad, fanning Iraq’s sectarian crisis, as US military officials confirmed three more US Marines died in action in separate attacks in western Iraq.

Iraq’s prime minister declared a state of emergency in once peaceful and oil-rich Basra, as the sectarian and militia violence engulfing the country’s capital spread to its southern economic heartland.