IRAQ: At least 56 people were killed and 200 injured when two suicide bombers strapped with explosives blew themselves up at Kurdish political party offices in Arbil, northern Iraq.
The violence in Iraq continued last night when guerrillas fired rockets at a US supply base in the Iraqi town of Balad, north of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding 12.
The suicide bombings in Arbil - detonated five minutes apart - happened as hundreds had gathered at offices to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adhar.
A Kurdish official said that 140 may have been killed, among them several prominent Kurdish leaders, including Arbil's governor Mr Akram Menten.
The bombers took advantage of lax security measures for the Eid holiday, entering the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the the Kurdistan Democratic Party without a thorough security search.
The attack was believed to be the deadliest since an August 29th car bombing in the holy city of Najaf killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more than 100 others as they emerged from Friday prayers.
In a statement, US administrator Mr Paul Bremer called the bombings "a cowardly attack on innocent human beings as well as on the very principle of democratic pluralism in Iraq".
He pledged that those responsible would be brought to justice.
Mr Mahiya al-Khatib, Iraqi Governing Council spokesman, said: "This attack is an entirely different ball game [to fighting between Kurds and Arabs]. It is an attack on all Iraqis."
It is unclear who was responsible for the attacks, although Kurdish officials were quick to blame Ansar al-Islam, a Islamic extremist group operating in northern Iraq before the war.
Military commanders say they believe Ansar and al-Qaeda operatives may be responsible for many of the attacks in Iraq.
The blast came as Kurdish leaders are pressing to retain or even expand the Kurds' autonomous region in the north under a future Iraqi government.
Under US-led aerial protection, Iraqi Kurds, ethnically distinct from the majority Arabs, have ruled an area of northern Iraq the size of Switzerland since the end of the Gulf war 13 years ago.
The demand for autonomy has raised tensions with Sunni Arabs in central Iraq.
Oil-rich Kirkuk, claimed by the Kurds as their capital but occupied by a large number of Arab settlers, has been the venue for a number of clashes in recent weeks.
The latest attacks coincided with a visit to Baghdad by the US Deputy Defence Secretary, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, and with the US military claiming that the security was improving.
Brig Gen Mark Kimmett said: "We've got more intelligence from Saddam's capture and more Iraqis in security position . . . that means the situation is improving."
He warned, however, that attacks were likely to increase as the June 30th deadline for the transfer of power to Iraqis approached.
The suicide bombings came a day after a car bomb outside a police station in the northern city of Mosul killed at least nine people and wounded 45.
Also on Saturday, three US soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were killed in a roadside bombing near Kirkuk.