Six Baghdad police killed

2005-01-10 10:54

Baghdad, Iraq - The deputy police chief of Baghdad and his son, also a police officer, were shot dead on Monday, an interior ministry official said.

Brigadier Amer Ali Nayef and his son, Lieutantant Khalid Amer, were assassinated in Baghdad's south Dora district while travelling in a car on their way to work, said Captain Ahmed Ismail, speaking for the ministry,.

Gunmen sprayed machine-gun fire from two cars, which were driving parallel to the police chief's vehicle, before fleeing the scene of the attack, police said. The two were alone in their car.

In a separate attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in the courtyard of a police station in southern Baghdad on Monday, killing at least four policemen and injuring 10 others, police and witnesses said. A fake police car packed with explosives was used in the attack.

The explosion took place at 8am (0500 GMT) in the Zafarniyah district, police commissioner Abdul Khaleq Hussein said. Witnesses said the explosion happened as policemen were changing shifts.

An Associated Press photographer saw a number of bodies inside the courtyard, which was cordoned off by police.

The killings were the latest in a series of attacks against ranking Iraqi security force officials and policemen ahead of elections at the end of the month, which insurgents are trying to disrupt.

Last Tuesday, gunmen shot dead the governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidari, and six of his bodyguards.

- AP