Baghdad: Two near simultaneous car bombs in Iraq today (Dec 15, 2003) left at least eight policemen dead and 17 people wounded, killing off any hope the capture of Saddam Hussein would stop a raging insurgency.

Separate police stations to the West and North of the Iraqi capital came under attack, police and the US Army said, a day after American forces found the ousted President down a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.

"Eight Iraqi police killed and 10 civilians wounded," at a post North of Baghdad, a military spokeswoman said.

At the same time, another car bomb exploded, wounding four policemen at a special operations centre on the Western edge of the capital, police said.

"At approximately 8.30 (local time), two cars tried to force their way into the police station," said police Captain Sinin Jamel at the al-Amiriya suburb.

"One of them exploded," he said. Another officer who refused to be named said four were hurt.

The bomb squad defused a second vehicle at the site.

Agencies