A suicide bomber driving a four-wheel drive taxi killed eight Iraqi policemen in an attack Monday on a station in the capital's northern outskirts, their commander said.

People stand outside the police station where a suicide bomber killed eight Iraqi policemen in Baghdad's northern Husainiyah district, Monday. Dec. 15, 2003. [AP]

Lt. Col. Ali Amer said 10 officers were injured in the blast in the northern Husainiyah district. Residents said at least five civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were also wounded by flying glass and debris.

Earlier Monday, seven officers were wounded when another car bomb exploded in the western Ameriyah neighborhood just after 8 a.m.

That attack was partially foiled by Iraqi police and U.S. Military Police who fired on a second explosives-packed vehicle and prevented it from ramming the police station and detonating, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, of the 1st Armored Division.

A would-be suicide bomber in the second ran off, abandoning the vehicle without detonating it, Hertling said. The man was later captured, said U.S. Army Capt. Brad Loudon.

The car's 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of plastic explosives, with a powerful limpet mine attached as a detonator, was defused, Hertling said

Later in the day, several large explosions reverberated in central Baghdad. The cause was not immediately clear.

Hertling said U.S. troops found yet another explosives-packed vehicle parked in east Baghdad on Sunday that appeared to have been abandoned, possibly because of mechanical trouble.

"Right now, we don't know what the target was," Hertling said. "It goes with the intelligence we had yesterday, that there would be several (car bombs). We dodged a couple of bullets in Baghdad."

The attacks came less than a day after U.S. officials announced the capture of Iraq (news - web sites)'s former leader Saddam Hussein.

U.S. officials in Baghdad have warned that the capture could lead to an increase in insurgents' attacks against troops of the U.S.-led coalition and their Iraqi allies.

Amer said the explosion in Husainiyah occurred when a yellow Toyota Land Cruiser drove through the razor fence encircling the building, and detonated next to the gate. Several houses and shops were damaged and at least three cars were burned.

The blast left a one-meter (3-foot) deep crater about 10 meters (yards) from the entrance to the building whose facade was demolished by the blast. The force of the blast heaved the car into the air and into the police station's courtyard.

Lt. Ali Ismail, wounded by a shrapnel in his forehead, said he was having breakfast at a shop across the street "when a car driving at high speed exploded in front of the station."

Salem Eid Ali, who lives across the street from the station and whose house was damaged by the blast, was wounded by flying glass and debris along with his wife and two children.

"We were in a state of shock. We were having breakfast and each of us was thrown a few meters away by the power of the blast. We had to carry my family from above the back wall of the house in order to take them to hospital," said Ali, whose family was still receiving treatment at the hospital.

Karima Nassi, said her 10-year-old daughter was slightly wounded in the neck by flying glass.

When the body of a dead policeman was taken from the site, residents screamed: "Saddam is God's enemy."

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