A suicide car bomber struck outside a police recruiting centre today, killing 68 Iraqis and turning the busy streets of Baqouba into a bloody tangle of twisted metal and dead bodies.

US marines performed an abrupt U-turn yesterday and prepared to hand the siege city of Fallujah over to an Iraqi army led by one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals.

US warplanes launching from the Gulf are pounding Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad to soften up the defensive line around the Iraqi capital in preparation for a US-led assault by ground troops, senior Navy officers said.

BITTER enmity between Iraq and Kuwait erupted in a vitriolic name-calling match yesterday at an Islamic summit meant to unite the voices of the world’s one billion Muslims against war.