An Iraqi boy, wounded by the car bomb explosion, in a Baghdad hospital on Friday. (Reuters)

Baghdad, Sept. 17 (Reuters): A suicide car bomber killed at least eight people in an attack on a police checkpoint in Baghdad today, after a night of US air strikes around rebel-held Falluja that killed scores.

A government spokesperson said the bomb had detonated beside a line of police vehicles set up to seal off routes to nearby Haifa Street, where US troops were continuing the battles they have been fighting all week to dislodge insurgents. A large crater was gouged into the road and several police cars were ablaze, sending thick smoke into the sky.

The interior ministry said five police had been killed and the health ministry said at least three civilians were also dead, and the toll could rise.

Earlier, a government spokesperson had put the toll at 13.

The US military said an air strike last night near Falluja had killed around 60 foreign fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian with a $25-million price on his head who is the Americans? number one foe in Iraq.

Early today, US warplanes destroyed a compound in south central Falluja that the US military said was also used by Zarqawi?s militants.

Today?s violence in Baghdad began before dawn near around the Haifa Street area. The US military said its troops had fired on a car packed with explosives that was driving towards a checkpoint, killing two men in the vehicle. Later, blasts and gunfire echoed from Haifa Street as US troops moved in.