The Iraqi government is refusing to execute Saddam Hussein’s henchman and cousin known as “Chemical Ali” unless the executions of two other associates are also approved.

At least six people were killed and 20 others injured today in a double bomb attack outside the Baghdad office of an Iraq government agency which cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, witnesses and a hospital official said.

Rescuers dug through the muddy wreckage of collapsed clay houses in north-west Iraq today, uncovering at least 200 bodies from suicide truck bombings the US military blamed on al-Qaida.

Iraqi security forces seized 200 explosive belts today along the Syrian border, a police spokesman said, reinforcing Baghdad’s claims that its western neighbour isn’t doing enough to stop the flow of fighters and weapons to al Qaida in Iraq.