Rebels kill 16 in Iraq ahead of Saddam's trial

Sixteen Iraqis have been killed in a series of rebel attacks ahead of the resumption on Sunday of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's trial, police said.

In Tikrit on early Sunday, Mahamud Daham Bidewi, an assistant to the city's chief of staff during Saddam's regime, was killed when rebels fired a rocket at his home.

In a separate incident, a police captain was shot dead by gunmen in the northern oil refinery town of Baiji, police said.

Elsewhere, 10 Iraqis were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb in Eskandiriyah town, 65 kilometres south of Baghdad, a police officer from Hilla said.

In a separate attack, a suicide car bomber blew himself up by an Iraqi army patrol, killing four Iraqi soldiers, near Saddam's native village of Ojah, located 180 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Six other soldiers were wounded in the attack, said Khaled al-Jabouri, a police officer from Tikrit city.

He said the US forces helped evacuate the casualties.