Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning yesterday at a base in southern Iraq after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast.

INSURGENTS detonated a suicide car bomb at police headquarters in the Iraqi town of Baiji yesterday, killing at least 10 people, and shot dead eight Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint ahead of January 30 polls.

US MARINES and infantry moved with surprising speed toward Baghdad yesterday, passing down roads littered with black combat boots as Saddam Hussein’s loyalists shed their uniforms and switched to tribal robes hoping to avoid capture.

A massive convoy of US Marines swept down the main road to Baghdad today amid reports that Iraq’s Republican Guard was moving reinforcements south for a showdown.