Notorious Saddam-Hussein-era officials have been released from jail in Iraq and some have already left the country, an Iraqi lawyer said today.

The vast majority of suicide attackers in Iraq are thought to be foreigners - mostly Saudis and other Gulf Arabs – and the trend has become more pronounced this year with North Africans also streaming in to carry out deadly missions, US and Iraqi officials say.

BOMBING and shooting attacks west of Baghdad killed six US troops and a suicide car bomber slammed into a truck carrying Iraqi policemen near the airport yesterday, killing at least eight and wounding 25 - the latest wave of violence aimed at derailing Iraq’s advancing political process.

INSURGENTS bombarded a headquarters used by American troops and Iraqi forces with mortar rounds in the city of Samarra yesterday, destroying the building and killing five US soldiers and one Iraqi guardsman.