A bomb planted inside a police station in the Iraqi city of Hilla killed six people today, officials said.
The blast, which wounded 12 policemen, punched a hole in the building's ceiling in the city centre, south of Baghdad. The police colonel who headed the anti-insurgent Scorpion police force, was among the dead.
Insurgents battling the US-backed government in Baghdad often attack Iraq's security forces. Building Iraq's fledgling police and army forces is a key element of Washington's plans for an eventual withdrawal of its troops.
Hilla, 100 kilometres south of the capital, is a mainly Shia city with many Sunni Arabs living in surrounding areas. It has previously been hit by big suicide bombings.
Nearer the capital, the bodies of 14 construction workers, who had their throats slit and their hands and legs bound, were found in a rural area, police said.
Police said the labourers, among 17 workers who had been kidnapped after leaving their work yesterday, were discovered in an orchard
40 kilometres north of Baghdad and in the central Sunni Muslim Salahedin province.