American soldiers mistakenly killed 11 Iraqi policemen today as they chased a car through a US checkpoint in a small town west of Fallujah, witnesses said.

US soldiers mistakenly killed 11 Iraqi policemen today as they chased a car in a small town west of Fallujah, witnesses said.

The US military in Baghdad has detained a reporter for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television broadcaster, saying he had broken unspecified “ground rules”.

A powerful Shiite member of Iraq’s US-picked Governing Council raged against the occupation of the country during a eulogy at the funeral of his murdered brother attended by almost half a million people today.

An audio tape purporting to be Saddam Hussein today denied involvement in the deadly car bombing in the holiest Iraqi Shiite Muslim city of Najaf.

The FBI is to join the investigation into the Najaf mosque bombing after the provincial governor called for US help over the explosion at Iraq’s holiest Shiite Muslim shrine that killed 125 people.

More than 300,000 Muslims began a two-day, 110-mile march to the holy city of Najaf today to mourn the Shiite leader assassinated in a car bombing that killed at least 85 people.

Iraqi police have arrested four men – including two Saudis – in connection with the bombing of Iraq’s most holy Shi-ite Muslim shrine.

Thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance today as they gathered outside Iraq’s holiest Shi-ite shrine where a day earlier a car bomb ripped through a crowd of worshippers, killing at least 85 people – including a leading cleric.

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim had just delivered a sermon calling for Iraqi unity and Friday prayers were under way at Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrine when a car bomb exploded.

The death toll from the massive car bomb that exploded at Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrine rose to 85 today, with 140 injured.

The Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV network has reported the death toll in a car bomb attack at an Iraqi holy shrine was at least 17.

There are reports that at least five people have died in a car bomb in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

An American soldier was killed and four others were wounded in Iraq today when their convoy came under attack, the US military said.

The French foreign minister today called for the deployment of a UN-run international force in Iraq, arguing that merely increasing troops under US and British control would not be enough.

An American soldier was killed today when his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb 16 miles north of Baghdad.

US Army sergeant William von Zehle has told of his battle to save top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, after a bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq.

The Irish Red Cross has called on the United States to make a greater effort to protect civilians and humanitarian aid workers in Iraq.

American snipers killed two men and wounded two others today in a raid on a weapons market in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

An American civilian contractor was killed in Iraq today when a bomb was detonated under the truck he was driving north of Tikrit.

The sons of Saddam Hussein, Oday and Qusay, were buried in the family cemetery in their home town of Tikrit this morning, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society and the US military said.

A US soldier was killed and three were wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their convoy east of Baghdad, the military reported today.

The US military handed over the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons, Oday and Qusay, to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which is taking the corpses for burial in their hometown of Tikrit, the US Army said today.

Saddam Hussein’s daughters have expressed deep affection for their father in interviews, but said they did not know where he was and that they last saw him a week before the Iraqi war started.

The US has approved the payment of the €28.6m reward to the Iraqi who revealed where Saddam Hussein’s two sons were hiding.

Iraq could have an an elected government in less than a year, the US administrator said today.

An American soldier was killed and two were wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine near Baghdad International Airport today.

The American public is split on whether President George Bush exaggerated information while making the case for war with Iraq, but still expressed strong support for his decision to take military action, according to a poll.

An American soldier was killed and two others were wounded by small arms fire at their base in northern Iraq, the US military said today.

A former UN weapons inspector has released a new book in which he accuses President Bush of illegally invading Iraq and calls for “regime change” in the United States at the next election.

The US army has extended the deployment of thousands of soldiers in Iraq because of the increased attacks on coalition forces, dashing hopes the troops would be home by September.

President George Bush has defended the quality of intelligence he receives as “darn good”, despite an uproar over disputed reports that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa for nuclear weapons.

Tony Blair is coming under mounting pressure to authorise an independent inquiry into the Iraqi dossiers affair after a trans-Atlantic split opened up over crucial intelligence.

The first post-Saddam Hussein governing body of Iraqis will hold its inaugural meeting today, a watershed event on the nation’s path to democracy, said the top US administrator, promising the council will have “real political power”.

President George W Bush said today he had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet despite his agency’s failure to warn Bush against making allegations about Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme which were later found to be false.

Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard said today he did not base his decision to send troops to war in Iraq on discredited US intelligence.

A growing number of Americans feel the US troop casualty level in Iraq is unacceptable and believe the Bush administration intentionally exaggerated evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, according to an ABC-Washington Post poll.

CIA Director George Tenet gave Congress and the White House the accountability they demanded, declaring that the blame for President George W Bush’s false allegation about an Iraqi nuclear deal rested squarely with him and his agency.

Attacks on Allied forces in Iraq continued today and, with shattered glass, blood stains and mangled vehicles littering the landscape, there is growing concern that the occupation could be turning into a fully fledged guerrilla war.

The former Iraqi information minister whose wildly implausible claims of victory during the war led to him being dubbed “Comical Ali”, has made his first TV appearance since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

American forces scoured the desert today for two US soldiers who were apparently abducted from an observation post north of Baghdad.

A top level investigation was under way today after six British soldiers were killed and eight injured in two separate attacks in Iraq – the heaviest British combat casualties since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

US defence officials were today investigating whether a strike on three vehicles fleeing Iraq near the Syrian border killed former dictator Saddam Hussein or his sons.

Iraq has re-entered the world oil market with its first shipment of crude since the war, but sabotage and looting along its largest pipeline delayed the flow of freshly pumped oil – the key to the reconstruction of an economy devastated by sanctions and war.