FALLUJAH, Sept 15: The police chief of Khaldiyah town, Colonel Khdayyir Ali Mukhlif, was killed on Monday when three men opened fire at his car in this hotspot city west of Baghdad, a police official here said.

“Around 2:00 pm (1000 GMT) three unknown assailants opened fire on the car in which the police chief was coming back to Khaldiyah from Fallujah,” Lieutenant Colonel Jalal Sabri, in charge of police patrols in Fallujah, said.

He said that two sergeants — Rabih Kannan and Fuad Fadel — who were travelling with Mukhlif were seriously wounded after another three men opened fire from a white pick-up truck.

The identity of the three killers was hidden as they had wrapped their heads in traditional Arab headdress, Col Sabri added. The three policemen from Khaldiyah were part of US attempts to establish a national Iraqi police.

On Saturday the US military issued an apology after nine security guards from Fallujah were killed the previous day when US troops opened fire as the guards were apparently engaged in a high-speed car chase.—AFP