BAGHDAD, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Eleven people were killed, including three women and three children, as a suicide bomber struck and a gunbattle broke out during a US raid on a house in northern Mosul on Sunday, the US military said.

CAIRO, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday, the first such trip since 1990, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

His visit is aimed at restoring formal ties between the two countries, a foreign ministry official said.

BAGHDAD, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Three US soldiers were wounded when two Blackhawk helicopters crashed during landing in their base in Baghdad, the American military said Sunday.

ANKARA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - The Turkish military Sunday accused Iraqi Kurds of aiding separatist Turkish Kurdish rebels taking refuge in their autonomous region in neighbouring northern Iraq.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit made a surprise visit to
Iraq on Sunday, the first such trip since 1990, saying it is the right
time to expand relations between the two nations

BAGHDAD, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Eleven people were killed, including three women and three children, when a suicide bomber struck during a US raid on a house in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, the US military said.

American troops came under fire as they entered the house in Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) from Baghdad, looking for a wanted man, it said in a statement.

BAGHDAD, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - An American military helicopter crashed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday, a military spokesman told AFP.

'We can confirm that a helicopter went down at approximately 8:55 pm (1755 GMT),' spokesman Lieutenant Patrick Evans said. 'We are awaiting further operational reporting.'

ARBIL, Iraq, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - US and Iraqi officials are 'very close' to an agreement on a controversial security pact that would decide the future of US forces in Iraq, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said here on Saturday.

BAGHDAD, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - US forces have killed an Al-Qaeda militant who planned some of the biggest bombings in Baghdad and who killed a group of Russian diplomats in 2006, the military said on Saturday.

Mahir Ahmad Mahmud al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami, was killed along with an unnamed woman in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah on Friday, a statement said.

DUBAI, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - United Arab Emirates-based firms Dana Gas PJSC and Crescent Petroleum announced on Saturday that they had begun producing gas under a deal with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region over Baghdad's objections.