Six Police Shot Dead, 11 People Wounded North Of Baghdad

BAQUBA, Iraq, Aug 28 (AFP) - Six Iraqi policemen were shot dead and 11 people wounded Saturday when gunmen travelling in two minibuses opened fire on a checkpoint in the restive city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, medics said.
The attack happened on a main road in the eastern Al-Tahir district of the city at about 4:00 pm (1200 GMT), said Brigadier General Abdul Salam Mahmud.
Police manning the checkpoint came under a hail of bullets, before the gunmen took flight in their minibuses.
A doctor said six people were killed and 11 others wounded -- nine of them police officers.
Earlier this month, loyalists of Al-Qaeda's alleged chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, claimed a suicide bombing this mainly Sunni Muslim city that killed six Iraqis, including five policemen, according to an Islamist website.
A huge suicide car bomb outside a Baquba police station on July 28, exactly one month after the interim government took power with the formal winding up the US-led occupation, killed 70 Iraqis, mostly prospective police recruits.