Violence continues across Iraq's so-called "Sunni Triangle" today (Wednesday) as insurgents reacted to a U.S.-led military campaign to crush them in Fallujah.
In Ramadi, hospital officials say fighting between gunmen and U.S. troops killed nine people and wounded 15 others.
In Fallujah, U.S. aircraft launched more air strikes against insurgents holding out in parts of the city.
In the northern city of Baiji, a car bomb blast near a U.S. military convoy killed at least 14 people. Three American soldiers were among the more than a dozen people wounded.
And the city of Mosul was calmer after several days of fighting as U.S. and Iraqi forces reclaimed police stations that had been seized by insurgents.
Elsewhere, British troops operating south of Baghdad were targeted in two bomb attacks. One soldier was wounded. And two Turkish truck drivers were found killed on a highway between Balad and Samarra.
The husband of Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan has asked Islamic militants to return his wife's body to him so that she can, in his words, rest in peace.
Tahseen Hassan spoke today (Wednesday) after the al-Jazeera television network obtained a video that appears to show the murder of Mrs. Hassan.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair called the apparent killing of the British-born humanitarian an abhorrent act. A top European Union Development official (Poul Nielsen) said her abduction and killing make it almost impossible for relief agencies to continue working in Iraq.
Mrs. Hassan spent 30 years caring for Iraq's poorest citizens, particularly children. She was the head of the CARE International humanitarian group in Iraq, and a vocal opponent of the U.S.-led invasion. Her abduction last month was widely condemned by Iraqi civilians and Islamic groups.