"Gunmen launched an attack against a position held by the law and order brigade [an elite police unit] killing four policemen and wounded six others," a security source said.
The firefight occurred in the capital's restive southern Dura neighborhood.
South of the capital in Iskandariyah, four civilians were killed and one was wounded when two minibuses were sprayed with gunfire on a highway, a police spokesman said.
In Samara, north of Baghdad, four municipal workers died and three others were injured when a makeshift bomb exploded as they were sweeping the center the city, police Captain Mohammed Ayser said.
Earlier in the day, gunmen kidnapped three women in Al Sadiyah, southern Baghdad, who worked inside the Green Zone which houses Iraqi government offices and the US and British embassies.
"Gunmen in three powerful German vehicles seized the three employees, without touching their driver," a security source reported.
In another attack south of Baghdad, eight policemen suffered injuries when a car bomb targeted their patrol on a highway, an interior ministry source said. Three of the wounded were airlifted by a US helicopter, while the others were rushed to Yarmuk hospital.
Elsewhere, police in Babylon said they had arrested three men on Wednesday in possession of around 50 archeological artifacts.
Also in Baghdad on Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was upbeat about the prospect of starting a British troop withdrawal from Iraq next year, as he made a surprise Christmas visit to forces in the field and met with top British and US officials. But he refused to set an "artificial timetable," saying the beginning of any pullout would depend on the ability of Iraqi armed forces and police to carry their weight.
Pressed by a journalist on whether he could give a deadline of six months to begin the withdrawal, Blair would not be drawn.
"It all depends on the mission being properly fulfilled, and this is to have the political process properly working and the Iraqi capability in terms of the army and police built up," he said, adding, "But there is no reason, if everything goes to plan, then it is our strategy - we want to draw down our own forces. We don't want to keep people here longer than we need them."
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit on Thursday with plans to visit American troops and meet with Iraqi leaders. Democracy in Iraq "will take some time", he said. "The Iraqi people who are involved in this process are relatively new to the political process. It will take them some time I suspect," Rumsfeld said. He arrived from Afghanistan, where he had met with US troops at the Bagram Air Base earlier in the day
Meanwhile, 35 Iraqi political groups, including secular Shias and Sunni Arabs, on Thursday rejected early results announced in the wake of last week's general elections and called for a new poll.
The groups, including the main Sunni Arab coalition, a secular Shia bloc headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, and the National Congress headed by former minister Ahmed Chalabi, also demanded an international probe into alleged vote-rigging and threatened to boycott the new parliament.
"We totally reject the results of these rigged elections and call for the cancellation of the early results" announced by the electoral commission, a joint statement said.
They also accused the electoral commission of abetting fraud and demanded an international investigation into "violations and irregularities that have marred the electoral process".
The December 15 general election, the third poll this year, was held to elect a full four-year parliament. Early results suggest religious Shia parties will have a large majority in the new parliament. The main Sunni parties came top of the polls in four of Iraq's 18 provinces.
The electoral commission said earlier this week it had received more than 1,000 complaints related to the election, but added that only 20 of these were "serious" and liable to result in the cancellation of votes.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was also in the capital on Thursday to meet with Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim Jaafari and to visit Polish troops.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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