Clashes erupted when a large number of gunmen stormed the main police station in Haditha, some 200km northwest of Baghdad, using rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, police said. The fighting lasted about 90 minutes. Six policemen were wounded and many captured.

The gunmen took captives away and killed 21 in execution-style shootings. On Saturday, four car bombs and attacks on police stations killed 34 people, most of them policemen, in the restive city of Samarra, some 100km north of Baghdad. The attacks occurred as US forces say they are preparing for a major offensive on the Sunni Muslim cities of Falluja and Ramadi, at the epicentre of an anti-American insurgency, to flush out Islamic militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists.