IRAQ: Iraq's new government was welcomed into being with another day of carnage across the country yesterday.
At least 17 people were killed and 50 injured in attacks ranging from suicide bombs, to rockets and mortars - underlining the challenges faced by an Iraqi-run administration.
At least three people were killed and 34 wounded in a car bomb attack on the Baghdad headquarters of a main Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a US military spokesman said.
In a separate attack, 200 miles to the north of Baghdad, 11 people were killed and 26 wounded when a car bomb exploded near the entrance of a US military base. Witnesses at the scene said several US soldiers were injured in the blast, that left a gaping crater.
A barrage of mortars also landed around US headquarters in Baghdad an hour before officials met to announce the new government. Several Iraqis were wounded in the attack, briefly causing scenes of mayhem in the former Republican Guard Palace.
The Polish army in Iraq said two Polish civilians were kidnapped in Baghdad but one of them managed to escape.
In Kirkuk, three more Iraqis were killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on trucks carrying concrete crash barrier through the town.
US commanders have warned that violence is likely to escalate in the coming months - with insurgents apparently determined to upset the country's reconstruction process whatever the composition of its administration. Security is at the top of the new government's agenda - which announced yesterday an expansion of Iraq's security services.
One of the first tasks for Iraqi forces will be to resume patrolling in the holy city of Najaf, after there were indications that weeks of fighting between US forces and the militia group loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr might be drawing to a close.
The town's governor, Adnan al-Zorfi, said a 72-hour truce had been reached between US-led coalition forces and Sheikh al-Sadr's Mahdi army.
In the agreement, US troops would halt patrols in the city and hand over security to Iraqi forces.
In return, the Mahdi army would withdraw from Najaf, ending a two-month long revolt. A similar arrangement had been tentatively reached last week, but did little to abate the violence.
US forces had originally called on Sheikh al-Sadr to turn himself in to Iraqi security forces for his part in the murder of a Shia cleric last summer, and to disband the Mahdi army.