Iraqi authorities say insurgents have shot dead at least three policemen, including the chief of a central Baghdad police station.

Police say the gunmen fired on a vehicle in which police officers were traveling to work Thursday morning.

The attack came a day after a suicide truck bombing claimed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group killed three people near the Agriculture Ministry and a Baghdad hotel used by Westerners.

Also Wednesday, Iraqi officials said they discovered the bodies of 41 people killed execution-style in two separate locations, in Qaim, near the Syrian border, and near Latifiya, south of Baghdad.

In other incidents in Baghdad, Iraq's planning minister Mahdi al-Hafidh escaped an assassination attempt when gunmen fired on his car, killing two of his bodyguards. And, an American soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.