Most of the victims were policemen and recruits lining up outside the station in Hibhib, the same small Sunni town near Baqouba where al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike more than a year ago. The area is considered a stronghold of both al-Qaeda-linked militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Altogether at least 142 Iraqis were killed or found dead on Wednesday, including 70 who died in three separate bombings in Baghdad.

On Thursday, the US military said American and Iraqi troops had killed seven suspects and captured 22 others in two days of raids across Iraq.

Among those targeted were emirs, or top-ranking figures, of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the US military said. One emir was captured and another was killed Wednesday in separate operations in Mosul, it said. Another emir was captured a day later in Baghdad, it added.

The US military announced three more soldier deaths: two killed in a mortar or rocket attack Tuesday, and another killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday.

A roadside bomb attack killed one soldier and wounded two others on an armed supply convoy near Basra in southern Iraq on Wednesday.

Two other soldiers were killed and 10 wounded after coming under fire on Tuesday, but the military did not specify the location of the attack.

Four more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including three who died when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in eastern Baghdad, the military said on Wednesday.