Six killed in attacks across Iraq

Iraqi police are regularly targeted by insurgents

Iraqi police say gunmen have killed a local chief of police in an ambush in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad.

Hatem Rashid Mohammad was killed along with another police officer as they visited a police stations.

Balad Ruz, 50 km (30 miles) north-east of the capital, is in Diyala province, where insurgents have frequently attacked the Iraqi police and military.

Reports say a third policeman died on Friday when police stormed a house they believed contained insurgents.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb explosion intended for a military convoy killed three civilians and wounded eight in the northern city of Kirkuk on Friday, police and hospitals officials said.

Attacks on Shia

On Thursday, five people, including two Iraqi soldiers, were killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern Iraq.

The blast occurred outside the town of Tuz Khurmatuat at a checkpoint set up near a Shia shrine being visited by Turkoman Shias for a festival.

A car bomb has also killed at least three people in the town of Samarra.

Casualties among US and coalition forces in Iraq fell to their lowest level in more than a year in March, according to figures from the US and UK Defence Departments and the US Central Command.

The data show 39 US and coalition troops were killed during March, the lowest toll since February 2004 when 23 died.