Unknown attackers have shot dead an Iraqi police chief at a flashpoint town in the heartland of resistance to the US-led occupation, police and witnesses say.
Colonel Khudair Mukhlif, chief of police in Khaldiya, a town west of Baghdad in the US-labelled "Sunni Triangle", was shot while driving his car at around 2pm today.
Three other policemen in the car were wounded in the attack on a road leading out of town, said Khaldiya police officer Mohammed Awad.
Iraqi guerrillas have launched a campaign of resistance in the Sunni Triangle, the heartland of support for deposed leader Saddam Hussein.
They have targeted not only US soldiers but also Iraqis seen as cooperating with the occupying forces, such as the police.
In nearby Ramadi, seven policemen were killed in a roadside bomb attack in July. Last month, a car bomb struck the Baghdad police headquarters, killing one officer in a suspected assassination attempt on the city's police chief.