BAGHDAD, Feb 10: American helicopters fired missiles at a police station near Baghdad to dislodge guerillas who killed six policemen after besieging it on Thursday.

The guerillas had encircled the police station at Salman Pak, 65kms south of Baghdad in the so-called Triangle of Death, and opened fire with anti-tank rockets and light arms.

A spokesman for the US Army said six policemen were killed and eight wounded in the battle. He said an unknown number of guerillas were also killed.

An official at Baghdad's Kindi hospital said earlier that 42 policemen were wounded in the clashes and two had died in hospital.

"The insurgents did assume control of the police station temporarily," the US spokesman said.

"We attacked them with helicopters, which fired missiles, and the insurgents fled. The operation to pursue them is still going on."

CONVOY AMBUSHED: Iraq saw a violent start to the Islamic new year on Thursday marked by police finding more than 20 rotting bodies in an ambushed convoy, by a car bomb and attacks that claimed at least another 10 lives.

Iraqi authorities started a recount of votes from 300 ballot boxes from the Jan 30 election. But they were still unable to say when the final results would be released, more than a week after the polls.

US authorities made plans however to start pulling out many of the extra troops sent to the country for the election and also won promises from NATO allies for more help to train Iraqi forces.

The bodies of the truck drivers had been lying in their burnt-out vehicles for at least two days on a road in the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad.

The convoy of more than 20 truck drivers and four police and soldiers was attacked at least two days before the bodies were found, but no locals had dared touch the scene, police said.

The trucks had been bringing sugar to Baghdad for food warehouses which distribute monthly rations. They were attacked on a road between Suwairah and Salman Pak.

In the capital, a car bomb exploded behind a US military patrol, killing at least two people and wounding five. The American patrol was unscathed but nearby vehicles in Tahrir Square were destroyed, witnesses said.

Another bomb aimed at a US patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk left one civilian dead. And a civilian and a police official were killed in attacks in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

In another incident, three Iraqi soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb at Dhuluiyah, the army said, and the body of an interpreter for US forces was found near Baiji.

At least one person was killed in an ambush in Baghdad's notorious Haifa Street district.

A mounting guerilla campaign has cast a shadow over the euphoria from the Iraqi election. Scores of police and armymen have been killed since the polls, while politicians and journalists have been targeted in drive-by shootings.

The authorities announced on Thursday Iraq's land frontiers would be closed from Feb 17 until Feb 22 for the Ashura.

Since Saddam's downfall in 2003, hundreds of thousands of foreign pilgrims have visited the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala every year.

As tensions remained high, authorities have also delayed announcing the final election results.

The results had been expected on Thursday but the election commission said this had to be put back because votes in 300 ballot boxes were being recounted.

With just over half the estimated vote of about eight million announced, the main Shia coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, is leading the race, followed by a Kurdish coalition.

The United Iraqi Alliance expects to secure an overall majority in the new 275-member national assembly that will draw up a new constitution.-AFP