Iraq suicide blast kills eight

A suicide car bomber crashed through the gates of a Baghdad police station today, killing at least three policemen and five civilians and wounding scores in the blast.

The explosion happened as a Spanish diplomat was shot dead as he was leaving his home in the Iraqi capital.

At the police station in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, the wreckage of a car lay beside the building. The explosion created a crater 10 feet wide by four feet deep in the station courtyard. It wounded a further 28 people, say local police.

Witnesses say the white Oldsmobile with two people inside was driven through the compound gates. Officers opened fire on the car before the bomb was detonated.

Fifty police officers were gathered in the yard to collect their pay at the time. Hundreds of people were inside the building, also waiting for their salaries.

Ambulances carried casualties from the scene while US military personnel surrounded the wrecked police station.

Thousands of local residents gathered to chant anti-American slogans. They attacked a TV camera crew and a police officer was stabbed. Policeman Anwar Abdul Rahim said: "We were standing in front of the station and a car sped up and slammed into other cars. There was a large explosion."

Police spokesman Captain Basim Mahmoud added: "The car was very, very fast and the security guards at the main gate tried to stop the car. They opened fire."

The car exploded about 25 metres from the building.

The blast caused the largest single death toll from any attack in Baghdad since the suicide lorry bombing on the UN in August, which killed 22 people, including the UN's head of mission.

Last month, a car bomb ripped through a major complex for Iraq's US-backed police force in Baghdad, wounding 14 people. The Spaniard killed today was named as José Antonio Bernal Gomez, an air force sergeant attached to Spain's secret service. He was hit by two bullets when he opened the door at his home.

Meanwhile, officials said US soldiers conducted a big raid near the Syrian border on Sunday and detained 112 suspects, including a high-ranking official in the former Republican Guard.

Journalists who covered the war in Iraq were remembered at a service at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, last night. Eighteen journalists, cameramen and assistants died in the war and five are still missing.