Twenty-three people have been killed in two car bomb attacks in Iraq, officials said.

Early-morning bombing by US warplanes on the largely Sunni city of Samarrah killed at least eight people, Iraqi hospital officials said today.

American troops were fighting Iraqi forces in the centre of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit today, in what is expected to be the last battle of the war.

The final stronghold of Saddam Hussein’s regime appeared tonight to be on the verge of falling to allied forces.