BAGHDAD, June 23: Four car bombs shook Baghdad after dawn on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens in the second wave of attacks within hours, police said.

The previous evening car bombs in a mainly Shia district of the city killed 18 people, after a day of talks in Brussels between the new Shia-led government, its US backers and other nations. Guerillas claimed responsibility.

In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected a call in the Senate to consider setting a timetable for a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, saying it would ‘throw a lifeline to terrorists’.

But statements by US officials that the resistance is fading have been met with scepticism from some lawmakers, who are questioning President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy two years into a conflict in which at least 1,725 US soldiers have died.

Despite a month-long crackdown by US and Iraqi troops and police in Baghdad, Al Qaeda allies and other guerillas have mounted major attacks on three days this week, while lower level violence is keeping up pressure on all security forces.

Police said a suicide car bomber killed three policemen and seven civilians when he drove at their patrol in the central commercial district of Karrada around 7am. A second, similar attack killed seven civilians, they said.

Two other cars exploded in the same area, several minutes apart, one near a Shia mosque. Police and medical sources put the number of wounded at between 23 and 50.

Guerillas have killed some 1,200 people, including around 120 US troops since the Shia-led government was formed two months ago.

Smoke and flames darkened the morning sky after the blasts.

A bus lay charred outside Karrada’s post office, shop fronts and fruit stalls were devastated and trees were uprooted.

In addition to the 18 dead, Wednesday night’s coordinated bomb attacks also wounded 48 in the Shia Shola district of Baghdad, police said. The area’s main street was devastated.

—Reuters