US Headquarters Bombed in Baghdad

For the second consecutive day, Baghdad's Green Zone, a secure area that houses the headquarters of the US-led coalition, was the target of a bomb attack.

At least four large explosions were heard across the city shortly before 8pm local time on Tuesday as mortar rounds were fired into the compound.

The US military confirmed that explosions had hit "central Baghdad" and that three people had been injured. They did not give further details.

On Monday the Green Zone was shaken by three explosions, again by suspected mortar rounds. No casualties were reported.

British combat deaths rose to 52 with a report from the defence ministry that a Royal Marine, 31-year-old Ian Plank, had been killed by hostile fire during a military operation last Friday.

The bombings come amid an increasingly bloody Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, for forces occupying Iraq. Ten days ago the Rashid Hotel, which lies within the secure area, was hit by missiles. Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defence secretary, was staying there at the time and one soldier was killed. The building has now been all but abandoned.

In a separate attack on Tuesday, one US soldier was killed and two others wounded in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.

Insurgents using small arms fire and rocket- propelled grenades also attacked a hotel housing US troops in the northern city of Mosul but caused no casualties.

Violence has also struck the southern cities of Najaf and Karbala, religious centres for Iraq's Shia majority. The two cities have seen clashes between factions supporting rival clerics jostling for power.

Three Iraqis were killed in a bomb blast overnight on Monday in Karbala, while in Najaf, suspected Ba'athists kidnapped and killed a judge who had been investigating crimes carried out by members of the previous regime.

Another judge died on Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk. He was shot by US soldiers lying in wait for a different target, according to a relative wounded in the same vehicle.

The violence prompted Spain on Tuesday to recall most of its diplomats in Baghdad for consultation, following an earlier lead by the Netherlands and Bulgaria. Spain has about 1,300 soldiers in Iraq and was one of the strongest supporters of the US-led invasion.

Ana Palacio, Spanish foreign minister, said embassy staff had been moved from Baghdad temporarily "given that it is a very complicated moment". However, she added that the diplomats' recall did not mean Spain was withdrawing from Iraq. The embassy will remain open but with a skeleton staff.

A Spanish sergeant working for military intelligence was killed last month outside his house in Baghdad and a Spanish navy captain was one of 22 who died in the bombing of the UN headquarters in the city in August.