"A car bomb exploded between the Rasafa police station and jail. No coalition forces were hurt, but one Iraqi policeman was killed," said Specialist Anthony Reinoso.

Medical sources said two policemen were seriously hurt and 19 lightly wounded. The bomb ripped through a police parking lot, right next to the capital's top police academy and across the street from the police headquarters and the ministry of interior.

News of the latest violence came as tens of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites converged on the city of Najaf for the funeral of a top Shi'ite cleric, among more than 80 people killed by a car bomb on Friday in the most deadly attack in postwar Iraq.

In the latest guerrilla attack, two US soldiers were killed on Monday when their vehicle hit an explosive device on one of Baghdad's main supply routes, a US military spokeswoman said.

Yesterday's blast hit a complex housing a training academy for a new US-backed Iraqi police force in the east of Baghdad, starting a large fire and sending a cloud of black smoke into the sky.

Brigadier Saeed Muneim, a senior police officer who inspected the scene, said Baghdad police chief Hassan Ali, a key ally of the US-led occupying authorities, was the probable target of the attack.

Ali's office was damaged but he was not in the building at the time, police said.

Hospital officials said 14 people had been wounded. A US soldier earlier said one Iraqi policeman had been killed.

"A car bomb blew up inside the complex," Iraqi police First Lieutenant Nihad Majeed told reporters as US military police sealed off the area and a military helicopter clattered overhead.

Guerrillas in postwar Iraq attack occupying forces every day and often also target Iraqis cooperating with them.

In Monday's attack on US troops, two soldiers serving with a military police unit were killed when their Humvee all-terrain vehicle ran over a homemade land mine, a military spokeswoman said.

The deaths brought to 67 the number of US soldiers killed in action in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.

US officials blame attacks on occupying forces and other targets on supporters of Saddam Hussein, still on the run nearly five months after he was deposed. But they have also made increasing mention of the presence of al Qaeda and other foreign fighters.