Police chief in town near Kirkuk, two guards gunned down: Iraqi police

KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 7 (AFP) - The chief of police in a town near Kirkuk was shot dead Thursday in front of his house along with two security guards, police in this oil-rich northern Iraqi city said.
"Colonel Rashid Ali al-Bayati, 49, was killed with two of his guards in an attack by two men on a motorbike as he returned home from work," said General Anwar Hamad, national guard chief in Taamin province where Kirkuk is located.
"The attack took place at 9:10 pm (1810 GMT)," he said adding that Bayati was in charge of the police force in the town of Salman Beik, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Kirkuk.
The attackers managed to escape, the police general said.
Police are a favoured target of a bubbling insurgency in the ethnic tinderbox of Kirkuk, some 255 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad.