Militants gun down police chief as up to eight killed in attacks

INSURGENTS gunned down a neighborhood police chief and set off a suicide bomb near a patrol guarding a holy shrine, part of a series of attacks yesterday targeting Iraqi security forces that left at least eight people dead, including four police officers.

Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying police colonel Abdul Karim Fahad Abbass as he headed to work in the sprawling southeastern Doura quarter, killing the neighbourhood station chief and his driver, Capt Falah al-Muhimadawi said.

Across the Tigris River that bisects Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the Hay Al-Amil area, killing one policeman and wounding five others, Capt Thalib Thamir said.