Militants assaulted a police station north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing a policeman, while five people, including a doctor, were shot dead in other attacks, security and medical officials said.

Militants shelled the police station in Hibhib, site of the killing of Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006, before attacking it with light and medium weapons, a colonel in the provincial operations command said.

One policeman was killed and two others were wounded, the colonel said, adding that police killed three attackers wearing explosive belts.

Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi told state television that police in Hibhib had thwarted an attempt to free prisoners.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed a well-known children's doctor, Ridha Hamza al-Bayati, in front of his home, a security source and Kirkuk health directorate chief Sadiq Omar Rasul said.

In the main northern city of Mosul, two soldiers were killed in an attack on a checkpoint, while a man was shot dead in front of his house, army First Lieutenant Khaled Falayih and Dr Tareq al-Nuaimi said.

And a provincial council security official was shot dead in west Baghdad, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.

Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks remain near-daily occurrences.