Guerrillas attacked Iraqi police with mortars and rifles in the northern city of Mosul today, police said.
Attackers fired a volley of mortar rounds at a police station in central Mosul around 6 a.m. (Irish time), hitting the station and an adjacent mosque, and wounding three people before fleeing in cars. One person was seriously hurt and the wounded included a policeman.
As police cordoned off the area and began searching vehicles, assailants opened fire on them, wounding at least one police officer, witnesses said. Police returned fire on the group of assailants, who fled.
The attacks are the latest in a string targeting Iraqi police and security forces, which were set up by the country's US occupiers as a key element in a plan to put Iraqis in charge of security before Washington hands them sovereignty in July.
Earlier, the Iraq Council reported that the death toll from multiple bomb attacks on Shia worshippers in Baghdad and Kerbala this week is 171, with 106 in Kerbala and 65 in Baghdad.