A roadside bomb killed a police chief Monday in western Iraq and wounded four of his guards, police and hospital officials said.
A policeman said Monday that Col. Mohammed Faisal was the police chief of the town of Hit near the border with Syria. Hit is about 85 miles (140 kilometers) west of Baghdad.
A doctor confirmed the casualties.
Although violence has ebbed nationwide in the past two years, police and other security officials remain prime targets for insurgents.
In the northern city of Mosul, a former insurgent stronghold, two Shiites were separately gunned down Monday evening in what police described as drive-by shootings. There was no immediately known motive for the killings, which were confirmed by a hospital official.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.
