A booby-trapped car with a corpse inside detonated when policemen approached to retrieve the body on Thursday, killing two policemen and six others, a well-informed police source said.

"An explosive-packed car parking in Baghdad's southern district of the Hai al-Amil detonated in the morning when policemen approached to examine a body of a man shot dead inside the car," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The blast killed two policemen and wounded six others," the source added.

Violence persists in Baghdad despite the presence of tens of thousands of US and Iraqi soldiers across the capital in a major security crackdown aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian violence in the war-torn country.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2007)