US troops kill three Iraqi police 'by mistake'

US troops mistakenly shot and killed three Iraqi police officers and wounded two others, thinking they were bandits, an Iraqi police officer said today.

The policemen were manning a checkpoint on a road in the Sleiman Beg area, 55 miles south of Kirkuk, in north-east Iraq, when US troops opened fire on them at about around midnight on Friday, said Lt. Salam Zangana of the Kirkuk police force. He said two other policemen were wounded.

In the same region Friday night, Iraqi police shot and wounded two people they said were trying to place roadside bombs on a route used by the US army around al-Hawija, a town 15 miles west of Kirkuk.

Col. Muslim Hassan of the Kirkuk police force told the AP that the wounded rebels managed to escape, and US soldiers later defused the two bombs.