GUNMEN attacked Iraqi police in two northern Iraqi cities, sparking clashes that killed two attackers as jailed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein wrote a letter to his family for the international Red Cross to deliver, officials said.

Jailed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has written a letter to his family for the international Red Cross to deliver, officials said today.

Two staff members of the international Red Cross have visited former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in US custody in Iraq, a spokeswoman said today.

The feared Ramadan rampage was launched in Baghdad today but on a scale that the American occupiers had not expected and not seen since major combat was declared over in May.

Multiple car bombings have rocked Baghdad today, including a suicide attack on the Red Cross headquarters that killed at least 10 people.

A suicide bomber rammed an ambulance packed with explosives into security barriers outside the Iraqi offices of the international Red Cross today, killing about 10 people, an American general said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross today said it was scaling back the number of people working in Baghdad after receiving warnings that the organisation might be a terror target.

Looting surged and buildings were set on fire across Baghdad today while American troops focused more on fighting pockets of resistance than on keeping order.