A series of latest attacks killed more than 100 Iraqis

Six Iraqi policemen were killed Tuesday in a car bombing in Saddam Hussein's hometown of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/war/2003/04/10/45890.html ' target=_blank>Tikrit, as the interim government said it has set aside 2.2 billion dollars to boost the security forces.

In other deadly strikes with elections less than three weeks away, at least five more &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2001/10/21/18713.html ' target=_blank>Iraqis -- all but one of them civilians -- were killed in attacks targeting US and Iraqi security forces, police and hospital sources said.

Iraq's US-backed government has set aside 2.2 billion dollars, or 11 percent of this year's budget, to strengthen the security forces to deal with the intensifying insurgency, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said, wrote the Turkish Press.

According to the Telegraph, eighteen people have been killed in the latest string of attacks to threaten Iraq's Jan 30 elections.

A group led by al-Qa'eda-linked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it carried out a suicide bombing which killed seven policemen at the police headquarters in Tikrit, a Sunni Muslim stronghold.