IRAQ:AT LEAST 46 people died in violence across Iraq yesterday, including 14 mourners from one family killed when a roadside bomb hit a bus in a southern province, security officials said.
In the southern city of Kut, members of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fought Iraqi security forces in clashes in which 14 people died, security officials said. Mr Sadr said last month he had renewed a ceasefire.
Violence has fallen across Iraq by 60 per cent since last June, but yesterday's attacks underlined how fragile the security gains are.
Police at the general hospital in Nassiriya said the casualties from the roadside bomb included women and children. Survivors said the device appeared to target a passing US military convoy.
The bus was carrying members of a family returning from mourning rites for a dead relative in the Shia holy city of Najaf when it was hit about 60 km (40 miles) south of Nassiriya.
In Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, an apparent attempt to arrest a Mehdi Army leader sparked clashes between the militia and the Iraqi security forces in two districts. There were conflicting reports that US troops were involved.
The commander of a quick reaction force in Kut, Lieut-Col Majid al-Amara, said 14 people had been killed, including four militiamen, three children and a policeman, and 28 wounded.
Meanwhile, the UN investigator on torture said yesterday his request to visit US-run jails in Iraq had been denied.
Manfred Nowak said he had received credible information that the situation had improved at US detention facilities in recent years, but stressed that only a visit would allow him to confirm this.
An international outcry erupted in 2004 after the release of images of prisoner abuse by US military personnel at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, including naked detainees stacked in a pyramid and others cowering before snarling dogs. - (Reuters)