BAGHDAD, March 23: Insurgents shot dead 11 Iraqi police and police trainees in two separate, daylight attacks on Tuesday, the latest deadly strikes against Iraqis working with the US-led occupation.

Near Hilla, south of Baghdad, gunmen in a red car opened fire on a minibus carrying policemen and recruits to work, killing nine and wounding at least two others on board, local police chief Major Kadhim Ajmi told Reuters.

At almost the same time, two police officers were shot and killed and two others were injured in a drive-by shooting near the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

And in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city in the far north of the country, a mortar attack on an Iraqi military base killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded six, local officials said.

The strikes are the latest in a spate of bold, daytime assaults against Iraqi police, paramilitaries and other security forces set up by the US-led administration in Iraq. -Reuters