Rebels launched multiple attacks on Iraqi police posts around the city of Tikrit killing 23 people – including 18 policemen – a day after the major Sunni Muslim political party pulled out of the campaign for the January 30 elections citing the deteriorating security situation.

Twenty-one Iraqis were killed when a bus carrying petrol exploded in a fireball after colliding with a car north-east of Baghdad, a hospital official said today.