Gunmen attack police as Red Cross visit Saddam

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.

The message was handed over to a two-member Red Cross delegation that visited Saddam at an undisclosed location in Iraq on Saturday, spokeswoman Nada Doumani said. It was the first time the Geneva-based body checked on Saddam since his arrest in an underground bunker in Tikrit on December 13.

The anti-occupation insurgency, believed led by Saddam loyalists, has persisted despite the arrest of the ousted Iraqi leader. Guerrillas have increasingly targeted Iraqi security officers, raising concerns over police readiness to face the insurgency once the Americans hand power over to the Iraqis on June 30.