Militants massacre 21 Iraq police

Police were attacked in Samarra on Saturday

Iraqi insurgents have stormed a police station, disarmed 21 officers and shot them dead, police say.

The attack at Haditha in the western province of al-Anbar was the latest in a series of violent incidents across the Sunni Triangle area.

There are also reports that a senior police officer was killed in an attack in the neighbouring town of Haqlaniya.

The insurgents' offensive is seen as a response to a planned assault by US troops on their stronghold of Falluja.

American and Iraqi forces are continuing preparations for the attack, amid reports that more than 100 insurgents have volunteered to drive suicide car bombs into the advancing troops.

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has told the people of Falluja not to drive on the streets once the fighting begins.

Military sources say that to do so risks being fired upon by the coalition forces.

Hands tied

Fighting at the Haditha police station, 200km (120 miles) west of Baghdad, lasted about 90 minutes, sources say, as the building was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

The gunmen fled, taking with them vehicles and weapons looted from the police station in Haditha.

The bodies of 21 policemen were later found with their hands tied behind their backs.

Al-Anbar province has seen repeated attacks on the US-led forces in Iraq.

Two weeks ago, a car blast outside a police academy in the town of Baghdadi killed 19 policemen.

The province also contains the rebel-held cities of Falluja and Ramadi.

Artillery fire

On Saturday, militants attacked police stations in Samarra, 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad, killing several officers, and set off car bombs in the city.

Correspondents say the attack on Samarra, which left at least 43 people dead, was an attempt by insurgents to relieve the pressure on Falluja.

There has been artillery fire on positions inside the city, with American aircraft heard almost continuously overhead.

As well as the risk of suicide attacks, US commanders said they expected resistance to an offensive to include car bombs and even crude chemical weapons.

The BBC's Paul Wood, embedded with the US Marines, says they believe that Falluja will be their biggest engagement since Hue, the Vietnamese city they captured in 1968, losing 142 men and killing thousands of the enemy.

It is reported from inside Falluja that insurgents, tribal chiefs and Sunni Muslim clerics have invited the media to enter the city under their protection to witness any assault, which they described as a crusade against Islam.