Insurgents met the determined advance of Iraqi and US security forces into Baghdad with another deadly bomb Friday, despite signs that Shiite militiamen at least have decided to go to ground.

The group that kidnapped two Germans in Iraq last week are said to have made a series of political demands in exchange for the hostages’ release, a German news magazine reported Friday.

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei Wednesday emphatically urged the world of Islam to take serious measures towards the Zionist regime’s ongoing desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque.