Some Western aid groups driven from Iraq in recent years are cautiously coming back, weighing the danger to their staff against the lives they may save among increasingly desperate Iraqis.

An Australian commando was killed in a clash with Taliban militia in Afghanistan on Friday, a day before Australians go to the polls in national elections in which the war in Iraq and Afghanistan will feature.

Al Qaeda fighters killed at least eight police in southern Baghdad on Thursday, raking them with machinegun fire from a stolen Iraqi army vehicle, police said.