Baghdad - Terrorist attacks again struck Iraq on Saturday as two explosions in different parts of the country killed more than ten people and left scores injured.

In Baghdad, five people were killed, and 20 others wounded when a car bomb went off near the National Theater in the al-Karada neighborhood, police said.

Earlier, a car bomb left at least nine people dead and 28 injured in the northern Iraqi town of Tall Afar, 60 kilometres west of Mosul, police told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Baghdad - At least nine people were killed and 28 injured in a car bomb blast Saturday in the nort

London, Nov 15 : Iraq’s national security adviser has said Baghdad is likely to approve a military pact with a timetable for the withdrawal of all US troops by 2011 and British troops by the end of next year.

Muwafaq al-Rubaie said that Iraq’s Cabinet could pass the controversial Iraq-US security pact as early as this weekend.

“I honestly believe we have reached now a very good text... And this text will secure the complete, full, irrevocable sovereignty of Iraq,” he said, who is also Baghdad’s chief negotiator on the security pact.

Baghdad - Fiery Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters Friday to pray and hold a peaceful demonstration against the US-Iraqi security pact in Baghdad next week.

"I hope that all Muslims in the Muslim and Arab worlds would support the demonstration morally by joining unified prayers in their countries," he said.

Baghdad - A kind of adhesive bomb has added a new dimension of terror to everyday life in Iraq.

Known by a variety of names - sticky bomb, magnetic bomb or glued bomb - the explosives are generally planted on a car's undercarriage and then detonated remotely. As their use surges, it's more and more common to see Iraqis checking the undersides of their vehicles lest they become the latest victim of this threat.

Hardly a day passes in Iraq without an explosion of a sticky device targeting an official, bus or private vehicle.

Manila  - A senior Iraqi diplomat on Friday urged the Philippines to lift a four-year travel ban to his country to allow more Filipinos to work there amid a massive reconstruction effort.

Adel Mawlood Hamoudi al-Hakimh, Iraq's charge d'affaires in Manila, said there were about 15,000 Filipinos working for companies in Iraq despite the ban.

He said more foreign workers were needed as Iraq implements a new phase of its reconstruction in 2009.

"For the new phase we are planning to do in 2009, we will be needing thousands of foreign workers," al-Hakimh said. "That's why we are so in need of Filipino help and experience."