Gunmen killed four Iraqi police officers and five police trainees in a drive-by shooting today.
The attackers fired from their car as their victims headed to work by minibus after leaving the town of Mussayab destined for Hilla, about 100 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Staff at Mussayab General Hospital said three other passengers were wounded.
Police have often been attacked by rebels who accuse them of cooperating too closely with the US-led occupiers. Two policemen were killed in another drive-by shooting on Tuesday, near the northern city of Kirkuk.
There have been several drive-by shootings in the Hilla area in recent weeks, and drive-by attacks have been on the increase throughout the country.
On March 16th guerrillas ambushed and killed a Dutch and a German engineer near Mussayab. The week before that, two US civilians seconded from the defence department and their Iraqi translator were shot dead on another road nearby.