Insurgents exploded a suicide car bomb and launched two mortar shells at Iraq’s Interior Ministry during National Police Day celebrations today, killing 29 people and injuring 18.

INSURGENTS fled to the countryside through a network of tunnels to escape an Iraqi-US force that reported killing about 150 rebels while storming the militant bastion of Tal Afar.

Fighting eased today on the second day of a sweep through a militant stronghold near the Syrian border as insurgents melted into the countryside - many escaping through a tunnel network they dug under the ancient city in the north of Iraq.