In Iraq, three British nationals have been killed in an explosion in Baghdad.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman was unable to confirm if they died in a suicide bombing near the offices of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party in which four people were killed and 24 injured.
Two of them were believed to be working for US-based international security consultant Kroll Incorporated.
A spate of attacks today in Baghdad and northern towns claimed the lives of at least 27 members of the country's fledgling
security forces and injured many others.
Four people were killed and 24 others were wounded in the suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad.
Police say the bomber, who was posing as a taxi driver, tried to ram his car through a checkpoint on a road leading the party headquarters of Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi.
The country's first election since the downfall of Saddam Hussein is scheduled to take place later this month.
In Kuwait, security forces are reported to have detained up to eight Kuwaiti soldiers suspected of plotting to attack US forces in the Gulf Arab state.
A security source said the soldiers were detained a week ago and are being questioned over a plot to attack American soldiers in the pro-US country.
He declined to give any further details.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, warned of more violence in Iraq in the run up to the country's 30 January election.
He was speaking after at least 23 people were killed yesterday in a suicide car bomb attack on a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers.
The suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a busload of national guardsmen outside a US military base in Balad, north of Baghdad.
The attack was claimed by followers of the Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to posters pasted on walls near the scene of the blast.
More than a dozen other people lost their lives in other attacks across Iraq yesterday.
Mr Powell said that such attacks would not delay the elections.
