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.

Karbala, Iraq - A former leading member of the Iraqi Baath Party was fatally shot on Friday, police said.

Gunmen killed Sami Jadua and his brother in the heavily Shiite city of Karbala, roughly 120 kilometres south of Baghdad, police in Karbala told the German Press Agency dpa on Friday.

The Iraqi government, which today is dominated by Shiite Muslims and Kurds, has recently begun reaching out to former members of the Baath Party, now banned under the Iraqi constitution, as part of a "national reconciliation" process.

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.

Mosul, Iraq  - In the second such killing in as many days, police on Thursday said they had found the body of another member of the minority Yezidi sect murdered near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Police said the man had been shot in the head and in the chest, and that his body was found in the Bashiqa district east of Mosul, where Iraqi and US forces have recently ramped up their campaign to break insurgent groups responsible for deadly, and near-daily, attacks in and near the city.