Baghdad/Cairo  - Three people were killed and 15 others were injured by a bicycle bomb in Baquba, the capital of the ethnically divided Iraqi province of Diyala, the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera reported on Monday.

All the casualties were construction workers looking for day jobs, al-Jazeera reported, citing police officials.

Baghdad  - The British military will hand over its base in the southern Iraqi city of Basra to US forces on Tuesday, local media reported.

Control of the base near Basra's airport will officially pass from the British to the US military in a ceremony on Tuesday, Baghdad's Voices of Iraq news agency reported on Monday, citing "a high-level official" at the Basra airport.

Iraq and Great Britain signed a deal last year whereby some 4,100 British troops will remain in Iraq to train the Iraqi army before British forces withdraw completely in July 2009.

Baghdad - US and Iraqi forces Sunday imposed a siege on central Baghdad's al-Fadl neighbourhood, blocking roads leading to it, a day after clashes erupted with members of a Sunni militia group.

Iraqi police and army forces were deployed in the neighbourhood and asked inhabitants to hand over their weapons, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa.

Armed clashes erupted Saturday evening as American and Iraqi troops arrested a key leader of the Awakening Councils, Adel al- Mashhadani, and his aide on "terrorism charges," including murder and displacement.

Baghdad, Mar. 27: The commander of ground forces in Iraq has said that US troops may extend their stay in the Iraqi cities of Baquba and Mosul beyond the June 2009 deadline.

A Christian Science Monitor report quoted US Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, as saying that the planned pullback of American soldiers from all Iraqi cities by the end of June will probably not be fully met.

Baghdad - At least 17 people were killed and at least 35 more were wounded when a truck loaded with explosives blew up in a crowded market in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. It was the second bombing in greater Baghdad this week.

An Interior Ministry official, who spoke to the German Press Agency dpa on condition of anonymity, said he feared the number of dead and wounded could rise because of the intensity of the blast, which hit eastern Baghdad's Shalal market at midday.

Baghdad  - Three children were killed on Wednesday when a bomb planted in a rubbish bin near a school in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul exploded as students were leaving classes in the afternoon.

Their deaths brought the number of civilians killed by insurgents in the city on Wednesday to five, medics and police said.