Gunmen Attack Police in North Iraq Cities

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716

<Snip>BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen attacked Iraqi police in two northern Iraqi cities, sparking clashes that killed two attackers, police said Sunday. Meanwhile, jailed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) wrote a letter to his family for the international Red Cross to deliver, officials said.

The message was handed over to a two-member Red Cross delegation that visited Saddam at an undisclosed location in Iraq (news - web sites) on Saturday, spokeswoman Nada Doumani said. It was the first time the Geneva-based body checked on Saddam since his arrest in an underground bunker in Tikrit on Dec 13.

The anti-occupation insurgency, believed led by Saddam loyalists, has persisted despite the arrest of the ousted Iraqi leader. Guerrillas have increasingly targeted Iraqi security officers, raising concerns over police readiness to face the insurgency once the Americans hand power over to the Iraqis on June 30.

A bomb went off Sunday near a U.S. convoy on a road south of Fallujah, causing some injuries, according to Ismail Fakhri, a 41-year-old farmer who said he witnessed the blast. U.S. troops blocked the road leading to the area of the attack. The U.S. command in Baghdad had no report on the incident.