At least 24 of the dead were Iraqi policemen.

SAMARRA, November 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 33 Iraqis were killed and 48 others injured on Saturday, November 6, in four car bombings and attacks the restive Iraqi city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, medics and police said.

"We have received 33 killed and 48 wounded," Doctor Nawfal Mohammed at Samarra's general hospital told Agence France Presse (AFP).

The dead included 24 policemen, including Brigadier General Abdul Razak Mohammed al-Jarmani, the local chief of a police rapid reaction force, officials said.

The other victims were three national guards and six civilians.

Jarmani died in a double car bomb attack in front of the local administration building, according to members of his entourage.

A third car bomb exploded half an hour later in front of a teachers' college in the city, leaving some people wounded, said Lieutenant Colonel Mahmud Ahmed.

He added that attacks by gunmen on police stations in Samarra left at least four killed and 17 wounded, and that at least six people were killed in clashes between fighters and US troops based in the city.

The fourth car bomb exploded at about 12:30 pm (0930 GMT) in the south of the city, killing 10 people and wounding five, said police Lieutenent Colonel Raed Mohammed Kazem.

US occupation forces, backed by the Iraqi national guardsmen, launched a massive attack on the city in early October, killing at least 150 people and wounding scores others.

According to medics and hospital officials, most of the victims were civilians.

Hundreds of Iraqi families, mostly women and children, have fled their homes to escape the gates of hell broken loose by the US occupation forces.

Looms Large

Annan said an onslaught on Fallujah would make it harder for Iraqis to accept any result from the election

The new wave of attacks in Samarra comes as US occupation forces stepped up daily attacks on the western Iraqi city of Fallujah in the run up for its massive offensive on the city.

"First Marine Expeditionary Force conducted coordinated offensive operations in and around the Fallujah-Ramadi area," a US military statement said Saturday.

"It destroyed three barricaded fighting positions, an anti-aircraft weapon and a weapons cache, " it added.

The mounting US raids on Fallujah comes as interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned that the massive onslaught on the city was looming large.

"The window really is closing for a peaceful settlement," AFP quoted him as saying after meeting European Union leaders in Brussels.

"The insurgents and terrorists are still operating there."

Negotiations between the US-backed interim government and delegates from the Fallujah collapsed in mid-October after Allawi threatened the city with invasion if it did not surrender Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

The people of Fallujah have repeatedly maintained that they did not harbor the wanted man.

The discussions were resumed after Allawi agreed to a last-ditch bid by the National Council (interim parliament) to reach a peaceful solution to a military standoff.

Warning

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had earlier warned the US, Britain and the interim Iraqi government against launching massive onslaught on Fallujah.

He said in a letter to leaders of the three countries that the offensive would make it harder for some Iraqis to accept any result from the election.

"Of course there are some extremists whom one can never get into the process, but the more inclusive the process, the greater the possibility that it will succeed and the results of the elections will be productive," he said.

Fallujah has been coming under daily US attacks under claims of harboring what the US occupation forces term "foreign fighters".

In April, at least 700 Iraqis, mostly women and children, were killed and 1,500 others injured in Fallujah when US occupation forces imposed a tight siege on the town and intensified air strikes on its densely-populated areas.