A car bomb ripped through a police station west of Baghdad today, killing at least 17 people, in the latest attack on the force central to Washington's plans to hand over power to Iraqis.
US troops on the scene said there a suicide bomber may have been behind the blast. It left a thick cloud of black smoke rising into the sky over the restive village of Khalidiyah, 60 km (35 miles) from the capital, around 5:40 a.m. Irish time.
Pools of blood, shattered glass and scattered shoes littered the street. A US officer said 17 were dead and 33 wounded. None were Americans or from allied foreign forces. An Iraqi police major put the toll at 16 dead and 32 hurt.
US troops and several Bradley armoured vehicles and tanks stood off about 50 metres from station, with soldiers stepping in to break up a confrontation between Iraqi police and about 200 local demonstrators who chanted "Yes, Yes to Saddam".
The remains of a twisted car lay outside the two-storey station. A stone wall around the structure appeared to have borne the brunt of the blast which destroyed parts of it.
US Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Swisher told reporters at the scene that there was "some evidence" of a suicide bomber.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad said there were no casualties among US or foreign allied forces.
Ambulances and rescue workers ferried the casualties to a hospital in the town of Ramadi, 110 kilometres west of the capital. The area, dominated by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority, is a focus of support for ousted president Saddam Hussein.
The bomb was the latest in a string of attacks on Iraqi police and other targets seen as cooperating with the US-led occupation. Scores of Iraqis have been killed.
US-led forces in Iraq have also come under daily attacks since the end of the war that toppled Saddam in April.
Several police targets have come under attack, including in Khalidiyah and Ramadi, before. The US-appointed police chief in Khalidiyah was killed in September.
The Iraqi police, trained by US forces, have often complained that they are not sufficiently armed or protected.
The police, along with a 40,000-strong new Iraqi army and security forces, are central to US plans to turn responsibility for security and formal sovereignty over to Iraqis by the middle of next year, ahead of the US presidential election in November.