"Coordinated joint operations by the police, air force and army that began early Monday resulted in the deaths of 13 terrorists from the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)," the defense ministry said in a statement.

The attack -- ordered after what the ministry said was "intensive intelligence work by the national police" -- came on the 100th day in office for Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, who has vowed to redouble efforts to bring Latin America's longest-running leftist insurgency to heel.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force also said that a child was was killed after being caught in the crossfire between troops and militants.

The five military deaths -- three after an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan -- and two in roadside bomb blasts in the south round off a bloody weekend for foreign forces after three soldiers were killed on Saturday.

A total of 641 foreign service personnel have now been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP count based on the independent icasualties.org website, which tracks coalition fatalities and injuries.

That compares with 521 killed in 2009 in what was previously the deadliest year on record for foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Improvised explosive devices account for the majority of coalition fatalities, although civilians are more often the victims of the bombs, according to the United Nations.

In a sign of the risks faced by Afghan police, three officers were killed and two others injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan, the provincial governor Khudai Rahim said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, said spokesman Khan Agha Miakhail.

Elsewhere, three civilians were killed and 20 others were wounded in home-made bomb blasts in eastern and southern Afghanistan, the government and local officials said.

One person died and nine others were wounded, including six children and two women, when a homemade bomb in a wheelbarrow went off in the eastern city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan's interior ministry said.

The attack happened near a NATO military base where Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack on Saturday. The assault was foiled and eight militants were killed, the alliance said.

Another two people were killed and 11 others injured when a motorcycle bomb exploded in Spin Boldak, near the Pakistan border in Kandahar province, which is the focus of the sweeping counter-insurgency drive against the Taliban.

The Kandahar provincial governor's office said the bomb was intended for border police but no officer was injured.

The attacks happened after 10 people, including three children, were killed in a motorcycle bombing at a market in a remote area of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan on Saturday.

A similar style bomb injured five in Kandahar city hours later.

ISAF announced later that two children were "inadvertently caught" in the crossfire when a joint Afghan National Army and NATO patrol came under attack in the Zhari district of Kandahar province.

"One was killed and one was wounded. The wounded child was medically evacuated to an ISAF medical facility," a statement said.

"Our thoughts and concerns are with the families of this terrible accident," added US Army Colonel Rafael Torres, director of ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Centre.

The hardline Islamist Taliban held power in Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when they were ousted in the US-led invasion after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

The number of ordinary Afghans killed in the conflict rose by a third in the first six months of 2010 to 1,271, with most deaths caused by insurgent attacks, the UN said in August.

From May to October 31, 768 civilians were killed in Afghanistan -- 614 of them by militants and 69 by ISAF. Responsibility for the remainder was unclear, the coalition said in an email to AFP on Sunday.

In the first study, researchers found that former child soldiers from Sierra Leone who lived in communities in which they felt accepted were less depressed and more confident, and children who were able to stay in school showed more positive attitudes and behaviors. However, these protective factors didn't fully counterbalance the war-related trauma the children experienced, a finding that has implications for public health.

In the second study, researchers found that the former child soldiers from Uganda who adapted the best were those who returned to less violent homes and communities. These children also had fewer feelings of survivor guilt, less motivation to seek revenge, better socioeconomic situations, and more perceived spiritual support.

The studies appear in a special section on children and disaster in the July/August 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

The first study took a longitudinal look at adjustment in former child solders involved in Sierra Leone's bloody civil war. Researchers focused on more than 150 children ages 10 to 18, mostly male, following them over two years. The research was carried out by a team based at Harvard University in collaboration with partners at the International Rescue Committee and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

During Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, thousands of children, some as young as 7, were conscripted into fighting forces and paramilitary groups, and as a result, witnessed executions, death squad killings, torture, detention, rape, and massacres of family members. As the conflict ended, the young people were returned to civilian life. This study, carried out in 2002 and 2004, is the first of its kind to examine how these youths fared.

The researchers found that all of the former child soldiers were exposed to high levels of violence, such as massacres or village raids. More than a third of the girls reported having been raped, and almost a quarter of both girls and boys reported having injured or killed someone.

Children who reported surviving rape or reported hurting or killing others showed higher levels of hostility, while those who survived rape demonstrated higher levels of hostility and anxiety over time compared to those who didn't experience these types of trauma. This suggests that these categories of war trauma are highly toxic to children's psychological and social adjustment. The study also found that children who were abducted at younger ages were more likely to report symptoms of depression over time than those who were older.

"Witnessing general war violence, although very common, didn't have a strong effect on the children's psychological and social adjustment over time," according to Theresa Betancourt, assistant professor of child health and human rights at Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study. "In contrast, the effects of experiencing rape and wounding or killing others were longer lasting."

The authors recommend that particular attention be paid to war-affected children with an accumulation of toxic risk factors and few protective resources. Social and mental health services for war-affected youths are severely limited in Sierra Leone today. Without targeted attention to those showing continued need, the researchers point out, there may well be broader consequences for society as this generation enters adulthood—including the inability to make the most of current investments in education and development activities.

"We have a long way to go before being able to fully mitigate the effects of particularly toxic stressors in the lives of children affected by war," notes Betancourt.

In the second study on child soldiers in Child Development, researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany looked at 330 former Ugandan child soldiers ages 11 to 17.

Since the late 1980s in Northern Uganda, an estimated 25,000 children and adolescents have been forcefully recruited into the Lord's Resistance Army. This study was carried out in 2006 at a government boarding school designed to support war-traumatized children and at the same time attempt to identify risk and protective factors to better target supports. On average, the children returned from the armed group after about 30 months; the study was carried out 4 months after they arrived at the school.

According to the study, almost all of the children had been exposed to shooting and beatings by armed forces, more than half had killed someone, and more than a quarter had been raped. The researchers found that a third of the children suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder, more than a third were depressed, and more than half had behavioral and emotional problems. Older children had more mental health problems than younger children, the study found.

The study also found that almost 90 percent of the child soldiers continued to be exposed to violence once they returned home—including caning, burning, being locked up, and being raped—and two thirds of them suffered from significant mental health problems. What helped foster the resilience of the one third of children who didn't have significant mental health problems? The researchers discovered it was the qualities of the child and the home environments to which they returned—such as less exposure to domestic and community violence, better family socioeconomic situations, less motivation to seek revenge, and more perceived spiritual support.

In Uganda, where there is only one psychiatrist for every 1.3 million people, training mental health professionals and creating sustainable intervention programs are urgently needed, according to the researchers. By identifying the factors that contribute to resilience in former child soldiers, this study can help those working with this population.

At least four suicide bombers attacked the premises of Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) in Kunduz city and two detonated their explosive vests, Mohammad Omar, the governor of northern Kunduz province, told AFP.

Smoke billowed from the building, which was surrounded by NATO-led Afghan troops after the latest strike by insurgents against foreign targets in the nearly nine-year conflict.

"The first suicide attacker detonated at the entrance, the second detonated inside the premises, killing one foreign national," he said, adding that one security guard and one policeman were also killed.

Two of the attackers were killed by security forces before they were able to detonate their explosives, he said, while two militants were "still resisting" from inside the compound.

An official at the US embassy in Kabul said a German security guard was killed and that another foreigner, whose nationality was not immediately clear, had been shot in the arm as expatriates fled on to the roof.

Both German and US troops are based in Kunduz under ISAF's operations to quell an intensifying Taliban insurgency.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, which began around dawn.

"This morning six Taliban suicide bombers attacked the United States development organisation branch," Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Northern Afghanistan has largely escaped the violence that blights the southern provinces, mainly because the population is dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, rather than the Pashtuns who make up the bulk of the Taliban.

In the past year, however, violence in the region has escalated as the Taliban converge on road routes that bring supplies from Central Asia to military bases in Afghanistan.

DAI is a so-called "implementing partner" of Washington's international aid arm USAID. It is believed to have opened its Kunduz operation about four months ago.

Such contractors are playing an increasingly important role in Afghanistan, utilising billions of dollars in aid money pouring into the impoverished country in an effort to rebuild after 30 years of war.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Afghan and foreign troops were involved in the clearing operation and had been evacuating the injured.

The Taliban are stepping up attacks on foreign targets in reaction to intensified efforts by the US and NATO to rout the militants, particularly from their strongholds in the south of the country.

Friday's attack came just days after Taliban gunmen attacked a major NATO base in the eastern city of Jalalabad, setting off a car bomb and firing rockets.

It was the latest in a series of attacks on military bases, although many do come under regular rocket fire.

US aid contractors have been attacked in a number of locations in Afghanistan in recent months, notably in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar where fighting is fiercest.

Suicide and gun attacks on foreign firms -- most involved in delivering aid projects -- have shaken the companies and hampered their efforts to recruit foreign staff as part of the "civilian surge" to speed development.

The US and NATO have 140,000 troops in Afghanistan, with most of the newly-deployed heading to the south as part of a US-led counter-insurgency strategy aimed at bringing the fight to the Taliban.

NATO also said Friday that one of its soldiers had been killed in eastern Afghanistan, bringing the death toll so far this year to 324.

Gunbattles between rival groups turned cities into warzones and marauding mobs torched whole villages on a third day of bloodshed in the Central Asian nation.

Neighbouring Uzbekistan said up to 80,000 ethnic Uzbeks, mostly women and children, had fled the fighting and were being housed in hastily set up camps along the border. Rights groups warned of a looming humanitarian crisis.

Russia sent paratroopers to protect its airbase in Kyrgyzstan but rejected requests from Bishkek to help end the unrest, the worst since President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in April.

Officials said 113 people have been killed in three days of clashes and 1,400 injured.

Interim Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva's provisional government late Saturday gave security forces shoot-to-kill orders to protect civilians, amid growing calls from foreign leaders and aid groups to end the clashes.

"If we do not take opportune and effective measures the unrest could become much more serious and descend into a regional conflict," it said.

It tightened a state of emergency to a 24-hour curfew in the Osh region, where the violence erupted Thursday and extended the emergency rule across the country's entire southern Jalalabad region as fighting spread there.

Kyrgyz authorities sent five planes of soldiers from Bishkek to Jalalabad, government radio reported, while the defence ministry mobilised all army reservists between the ages of 18 and 50.

But the violence raged on.

Many of the refugees flooding the Uzbekistan border village of Yorkishlok accused Kyrgyz law enforcement officials of siding with the marauding gangs of ethnic Kyrgyz.

"They are killing us -- all the Uzbeks -- one after the other!" Rani, 51, told AFP after quitting her home in the Osh region. "I fled. I don't know what happened to my children and my grandchildren.

Uzbekistan called the violence an organized bid to inflame ethnic tensions, as it officially allowed people over the border for the first time.

"In the whole of the Andijan region, 32,000 adult refugees have been registered," Abror Kosimov, the head of the regional emergency services told AFP. The number of child refugees was in the thousands, he added.

A police official put the total number including children at more than 80,000.

In Kyrgyzstan's south, panicked residents described mounting chaos.

"The authorities are not doing anything to stabilise the situation... We are not even able to collect bodies from the streets," Ruslan, an Osh resident who preferred not to give his surname, said by telephone.

"The truth and the enormity of the tragedy cannot be hidden. The city centre is under the control of bandits."

In Jalalabad, where the worst of the fighting now appears to be centered, local resident Sergei Kim, described gunbattles throughout the city.

"There are shoot-outs going on in the streets and many people. A gang is moving in the direction of the university," he said.

"The authorities are completely overwhelmed, as are the emergency services," said Severine Chappaz, the deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mission in Kyrgyzstan.

Andrea Berg, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, who until Sunday was trapped in Osh by the fighting, repeated HRW's call for international action.

"People are desperate to escape the violence but without international assistance there's no way out, and every minute of delay is costing lives," she said.

The provisional government has struggled to impose order since coming to power during deadly riots that ousted Bakiyev and left dozens of people dead.

Bakiyev, exiled in Belarus, dismissed as a "shameless lie" any suggestion that he was linked to the violence.

Since April's uprising, foreign leaders have warned of the risk of civil war in the strategic state, which hosts both a US airbase outside the capital Bishkek that is vital to its operations in Afghanistan and Russian bases.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm Sunday at the scale of the violence, its inter-ethnic character, the mounting casualties and the large number of displaced people, his spokesman said in a statement.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Kyrgyzstan to "restablish order as soon as possible", the Kremlin said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.

The overnight attack was unprecedented for its proximity to the Pakistani capital, taking place at a depot on the outskirts of Islamabad on the road to the northwestern city of Peshawar and towards the main NATO supply route into Afghanistan.

Although militants have routinely attacked supplies for US and NATO-led foreign forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the assault was one of the worst and underlines insecurity on the doorstep of the heavily-guarded capital.

Rows of tankers and trucks were reduced to a twisted mass of metal after the towering inferno at the Tarnol depot was brought under control, including a dozen loaded with military vehicles, television footage showed.

"Seven deaths have been confirmed. Four are injured. There is no information about any arrests," said police official Gustasab Khan. The casualties were the drivers of the trucks, their helpers or local people, he said.

Police could not give a breakdown on the number of tankers and containers destroyed at the sprawling Tarnol depot, which is also used by local vehicles.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, similar assaults in the past have been blamed on Taliban fighters.

"Unknown attackers opened fire on vehicles parked at Tarnol. Fire erupted in the tankers and trucks, and over a dozen were set ablaze. They were trucks carrying NATO supplies," said police official Tahir Riaz.

"The vehicles gutted were carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan," Naeemullah Khan, an officer at Tarnol police station, told AFP.

In unconfirmed reports, private television channels said dozens of tankers and containers were destroyed in a series of explosions and a towering inferno, although not all necessarily carrying NATO supplies.

Kalim Iman, inspector general of Islamabad police, told reporters that 10 to 12 attackers had stormed the terminal and then managed to escape, but declined to put a precise figure on the losses.

"Fire has destroyed a number of oil tankers and trailors. We are collecting details. The attackers have been identified. They came on motorbikes and pick-up trucks. They were armed," he said.

"We have launched an investigation. Police are trying to arrest them."

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by the 130,000 US-led foreign troops across the border are shipped through northwest Pakistan, which has been hard hit by shootings and bomb attacks blamed on radical Islamist militants.

But the heavily protected capital has been largely shielded from attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militant attacks, which have killed more than 3,370 people since July 2007.

The attacks began as retaliation over a government siege on a radical mosque in Islamabad and flared last year as the military fought major campaigns against Taliban in the northwest regions of Swat and South Waziristan.

Washington says Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, which lies outside direct government control, is an Al-Qaeda headquarters and a stronghold for militants plotting attacks on US-led troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Faced with the increasingly deadly and costly conflict between Taliban insurgents and the Kabul government, the United States and NATO allies are boosting their troop numbers to a record 150,000 in Afghanistan by August.

Police said the death toll was expected to rise with dozens more bodies feared trapped in the mangled wreckage after 13 carriages of the Mumbai-bound express from Kolkata careened off the tracks in a remote area of West Bengal.

Initial reports had suggested the derailment was triggered by an explosion, but police said there was evidence that the fishplates used to secure adjoining sections of track had been removed.

"We found some Maoist leaflets at the site so it appears to be the work of Maoists," West Bengal police chief Bhupinder Singh told AFP.

"It seems there are still a large number of passengers trapped in the carriages -- dead or alive, we are not sure," Singh said.

Another senior police official helping coordinate the rescue operation said emergency teams had recovered 65 bodies.

"And the fear is that there will be many more," police inspector general Surajit Kar Purakayastha told AFP.

More than 120 people were reported injured, some of them in critical condition.

Four of the carriages which had slammed into an oncoming goods train were badly crushed and flipped on their sides with body parts clearly visible amid the twisted metal.

Rescue workers with bolt cutters struggled to free anyone still alive inside.

One survivor, Vinayak Sadna, said he had been sleeping when his carriage lurched violently to one side and then flipped over, flinging passengers around the compartment.

"I ended up stuck between two seats with an iron bar crushing my hand," Sadna said. "I was trapped for three hours before I was pulled out. My wife is still missing."

Another distraught passenger, Ranjit Ganguly, who was travelling to Mumbai for a holiday with his family said he had been thrown from his carriage by the impact but his daughter and son were trapped inside.

Paramedic teams treated the injured on the side of the track, while the most serious cases were evacuated by air force helicopters.

Railways Minister Mamata Bannerjee, who rushed to the site, confirmed that Maoists were believed to be responsible.

"The railways are a soft target. They are a lifeline ... which the Maoists have attacked in the past and, it seems, even now," she told reporters.

The incident occurred at around 1:30 am (2000 GMT Thursday) in the district of West Midnapore -- a Maoist stronghold around 135 kilometres (85 miles) west of Kolkata.

If Maoist involvement is confirmed, it will increase pressure on the Indian government, which is currently reviewing its anti-Maoist strategy after a series of deadly attacks.

Until now, the government has resisted growing calls to deploy the military against the rebels, preferring instead to use regular and paramilitary police.

But Home Minister P. Chidambaram -- who has borne the brunt of public criticism over the handling of the insurgency -- recently acknowledged that changes were needed and said he would request wider powers.

The Maoist rebellion began in West Bengal state in 1967 in the name of defending the rights of tribal groups, and has since spread to 20 of India's 28 states.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has labelled it the biggest threat to the country's internal security.

In April, the rebels ambushed and killed 76 policemen in the central state of Chhattisgarh in the bloodiest massacre of security forces so far by the extremists.

Friday's incident was the worst loss of life on India's enormous rail network since 22 people were killed in October, when a Delhi-bound express ploughed into the back of passenger train near the Taj Mahal town of Agra.

The railway system -- the main form of long-distance travel in India despite fierce competition from private airlines -- runs 14,000 passenger and freight trains a day, carrying 18.5 million people.

"An Italian man was shot and died before arriving at the hospital," said Police Hospital director Jongjet Aoajenpong. "He's a journalist. He was shot in the stomach," he added.

Meanwhile elite troops deployed in the protest-hit capital have been authorised to shoot on sight people looting, committing arson or inciting unrest, a police spokesman has said.

"Metropolitan Police deployed about 1,000 rapid movement troops and if they find looting, arson or anybody inciting unrest, police are authorised to shoot immediately," said police spokesman Major General Piya Uthayo.

News of the deaths follows the army's early morning strategy in which they smashed through protesters' tyres and razor wire barricades.

Amid the chaos leaders of Thailand's anti-government protest movement said they will surrender shortly, lawmakers and police have said.

Senator Lertrat Rattanavanich, who has been involved in failed mediation efforts, said senior Reds including Jatuporn Prompan, who are still at the centre of their Bangkok encampment, would turn themselves in at 0600 GMT.

Gunfire has been exchanged in clashes in the encampment, which the "Red Shirts" have occupied for six weeks, defying a military containment operation launched last Thursday that left 39 dead.

In the face of the barrage, some 100 other protesters fled towards the movement's main rally stage in the heart of their sprawling encampment, which has shut down Bangkok's main shopping district.

Reds leaders tried to quell a rising sense of panic among some 5,000 supporters including many women and children who are still inside the rally base despite the violence and orders to leave.

Some were openly crying and others put on face masks in fear of tear gas attacks.

"Please stay calm today, no matter what happens we will stay here together," leader Nattawut Saikuar said from the stage where protesters were gathered for safety, directing them to a nearby Buddhist temple if necessary.

"Those who fear for your life go to the temple, but those who volunteer to stay here you are free to do so."

The government said the offensive was aimed at establishing a secure perimeter around the protest base, but the military offensive now appeared to be aimed at completely closing down the camp.

"The operations are designed to make sure that the security officers can provide security and safety to the public at large. The operations will continue throughout the day," said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn.

"We would like to reassure the citizens and residents of Bangkok that the operations are designed to make sure that we stabilise the area," he said in a televised address.

Hundreds of army and police advanced towards the protest zone in the pre-dawn hours, with trucks dropping off troops wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons and riot shields, while a helicopter circled overhead.

Several large fires broke out at barricades and major buildings around the protest zone, sending out massive clouds of black smoke that obscured the Bangkok skyline.

Dozens of soldiers crept along Wireless Road, which runs parallel to the protest zone, crouching behind trees and poles and scurrying up foot bridges near the US embassy, which has been closed.

"Danger zone," one soldier said, waving reporters back as muffled cracks rang out from nearby Lumpini park, which the protesters had spilled into during an occupation that has forced hotels and shopping centres to close.

Security forces have battled with the Reds since last Thursday as they attempted to seal off the rally base, turning parts of the city into no-go zones as troops used live ammunition against protesters, who fought back mainly with homemade weapons.

The Reds are campaigning for elections to replace the administration of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, which they consider illegitimate because it came to power with the backing of the army in a 2008 parliamentary vote.

They are mostly supporters of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 coup. A controversial court ruling ejected his elected allies from power, paving the way for Abhisit's government to be appointed.

Many countries have warned their nations against travelling to Thailand. Australia Wednesday said travellers should not visit Bangkok, citing the deteriorating security situation.

Five women were among the dead, an interior ministry official said, while a security spokesman blamed Al-Qaeda and said 17 people were arrested in connection with the murders.

The victims were found with either broken arms or legs, indicating they were tortured, according to a medical official at Al-Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad with knowledge of police reports of the killings.

The brutal killings come as Iraq's political parties negotiate to form a government, nearly a month after a general election.

Security officials have warned that a protracted period of coalition building could give insurgents an opportunity to further destabilize Iraq.

"Men wearing uniforms and driving vehicles similar to those used by the army stormed three houses in the village of Sufia, in the region of Hour Rajab, and killed 25 people, including five women," said the interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A defense ministry official confirmed the details of the attack and the toll.

The interior ministry official said witnesses told security forces the killers entered the village just before midnight on Friday and carried out the murders about two hours later.

They tied up their victims and shot them all either in the head or the chest in a rampage of violence, believed the worst against anti-Qaeda fighters since November 16 when 13 members of a tribe opposed to the jihadists were murdered west of Baghdad.

"Our information is that the killers were from Al-Qaeda," said Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta, who put the death toll at 24 -- 19 men and five women -- and added that some were security forces members.

Atta said 17 people were arrested in connection with the killings, and that a security cordon was established around the village.

He added that seven other civilians discovered handcuffed in the village were freed, noting that the group were likely targets as well.

The families were part of the Sahwa (Awakening) movement, known as the "Sons of Iraq" by the US army, which joined American and Iraqi forces in 2006 and 2007 to fight against Al-Qaeda and its supporters, leading to a dramatic fall in violence across the country.

All those killed on Saturday were members of the Jubur tribe, which was among the last supporters of Al-Qaeda to switch its allegiance, eventually only doing so in late 2007.

It is the dominant Sunni Arab tribe in Sufia, part of the Hour Rajab agricultural region on Baghdad's outskirts.

Control of the Sahwa passed to Iraqi authorities in October 2008 and since January 2009, their wages -- said to have been cut from 300 dollars under US leadership to 100 dollars -- have been paid, often late, by the government.

The Sahwa are, however, regular targets of Al-Qaeda, which remains active in the country.

Though the frequency of attacks has dropped significantly across Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, figures released on Thursday showed the number of Iraqis killed in violence last month, 367, was the highest this year.

The death toll for March also represented the fourth consecutive month in which the overall number of people killed was higher than the same month a year previously.

Saturday's violence comes as Iraq's two biggest political blocs -- the Iraqiya list of ex-premier Iyad Allawi and the State of Law Alliance of sitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki -- battle to form coalition governments, more than a week after results from the March 7 poll were released.

Ivory Coast's ruling party says the delay in rebel disarmament is holding up the organization of a presidential poll that has been postponed eight times since civil war cut the country in half in 2002.

Ivory Coast's former rebel faction, the New Forces, responded Monday that disarmament has never been a precondition for organizing elections.

Spokeswoman for the New Forces, Affousy Bamba, says the war is over and insisting on disarmament before organizing elections is a step backwards.

Bamba called for an end to recent attacks by the presidential camp on the New Forces, who continue to control the northern part of the country. She said these accusations are "counterproductive" to the peace process.

Bamba said the process of disarmament for rebels will begin one month before the poll date, as prescribed by the Ouagadougou peace accords. She said those agreements also require militias loyal to the president to begin disarming two months before the vote.

In Monday's statement, the New Forces said that of the approximately 20,000 soldiers yet to be disarmed or reintegrated into Ivorian society, 5,000 will be kept on to help secure the polls on election day. The disarmament process will finish after the elections.

The U.N. Security Council expressed concern last week at continuing electoral delays in Ivory Coast.

The most recent setback came after President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the government and electoral commission on February 12th, sparking violent protests around the country. Mr. Gbagbo had accused the electoral commission of illegally registering as many as 400,000 foreigners.

Mr. Gbagbo's political opponents accuse him of stalling elections to remain in power, though his supporters deny these allegations.

A new electoral commission was put in place in late February, but has yet to propose a new electoral timeline or new poll date.

Of the more than six-million names on the provisional voter list, the eligibility of one-million voters is still being disputed, mainly on the grounds of nationality. Progress towards the definitive voter list has been slow, and observers fear that holding a poll in May is impossible.