The deputy police chief of Baghdad and his son, also a police officer, were assassinated today, an interior ministry official said.

US soldiers mistakenly opened fire on Iraqi police and civilians after an ambush south of Baghdad yesterday, killing five people. The incident came less than 24 hours after a mis-aimed US bomb was dropped on a home in the north of the country, killing another five Iraqis. Combined, the incidents will feed calls that US forces set a date for their withdrawal, a demand made by several Iraqi political factions during the run-up to the January 30 elections.