Captured bomber had a Syrian passport

A US general said the one attacker captured in the bombings that killed over 40 people in Baghdad yesterday had a Syrian passport, fuelling suspicions that foreign fighters were behind a rising tide of violence.

Brigadier General Mark Hertling of the US Army's 1st Armoured Division said police shot and wounded the man when he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT.

"He's a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell he said he was Syrian," Hertling told a news conference.