Rebels target Iraqi police

Gunmen attacked Iraqi police in two northern Iraqi cities, sparking clashes that killed two attackers, police said today.

The anti-occupation insurgency, believed led by Saddam Hussein loyalists, has persisted despite the arrest of the Iraqi leader.

Guerrillas have increasingly targeted Iraqi security officers, raising concerns over police readiness to face the insurgency once the Americans hand power over to the Iraqis on June 30.

A bomb went off today near a US convoy on a road south of Fallujah, causing some injuries, according to Ismail Fakhri, a 41-year-old farmer who said he witnessed the blast.

US troops blocked the road leading to the area of the attack. The US command in Baghdad had no report on the incident.

In northern Iraq, gunmen opened fire on the house of the Mosul police chief yesterday, police colonel Abdul-Azal Hazim said. Police returned fire and killed one attacker and injured another, he said.

Also in Mosul, an Iraqi was killed today by a bomb on a road used frequently by US troops, police said. It was unclear whether the victim was planting the device when it exploded.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, insurgents opened fire with machine guns on the headquarters of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps on Saturday. Security officers returned fire, killing one of the attackers, said the corps’ regional commander, Col. Anwar Amin.

Two mortar rounds landed near a British camp on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra early today, a spokesman for British troops in the area said, adding there were no immediate reports on damage or casualties.