[17 January 2005] BAQUBA,(Saba) - Insurgents detonated a suicide car bomb at police headquarters in the Iraqi town of Baiji on Monday, killing at least ten people, and shot dead eight Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in attacks ahead of Jan 30 elections .

Witnesses said burned bodies were scattered in the compound in Baiji, an oil refining town in the north of Baghdad. A police official said at
least 20 people were wounded, mostly policemen.

The ten slain officers were brought to a Baquba hospital.

Iraqi security forces have borne the brunt of insurgent attacks as the polls approach.

Police in Basra said mortars were fired overnight at three schools in the city that will be used as voting centers. Nobody was wounded, they said .

TD/KM

SABA