Iraqi police were attacked on Thursday west of the capital and three officers were killed and five injured. Gunmen in a passing car used AK-47 assault rifles and tossed a grenade at a police checkpoint near Fallujah, according to a top police officer. Elsewhere, a Major in the paramilitary Spanish civil guard was shot in the forehead and very seriously wounded in an "anti-terrorist operation" in southern Iraq. Major Gonzalo Perez Garcia, chief of security for the Spanish-Latin American Plus Ultra brigade, and an Iraqi police officer were shot during a raid on a house at Hamsa, near Diwaniyah, about 200 kilometers southeast of the capital. The Spanish defense ministry said in a statement that Garcia and two Iraqi policemen gave chase to gunmen who drove up to "the home of the leader of a terrorist group" while they were searching it, and were hit as the gunmen escaped. Garcia was flown by helicopter to Dogwood American hospital in Baghdad, where he was treated by neuro-surgeons, the statement said Thursday. Also Thursday, the 23-year-old son of a former senior official from Baath party was slain in the southern city of Basra by an unidentified gunman, police said. Meanwhile, three American troops were killed and one injured near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, in a rocket or mortar attack at 6:30 pm (1530 GMT), the US military stated Thursday. "Three US soldiers were killed Wednesday and one wounded near Baquba in a mortar or rocket attack," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Williams told AFP. US soldiers were attacked by mortars and rockets as they stood outside the tactical operations center on a base in Baquba, just over 50 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, US military said. Another solider was critically wounded. Vehicles were also damaged in the raid. Military spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle said American troops launched a counterattack but did not know whether "insurgents" suffered any casualties. Elsewhere, four Iraqi women were killed late Wednesday near Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad. The four were on their way to work in a nearby US base when the minibus they were travelling in was attacked by gunmen. Six other women were injured. According to a survivor, the attack took place on the road linking Fallujah to the US base of Habbaniya further west. Maggi Aziz, 49, wounded in the leg, shoulder and head, told AFP "four masked men in a white Opel machine-gunned our minibus and four women died. The rest of the passengers were wounded." In another incident, a British soldier was killed in an automobile accident on Wednesday in the southern Iraqi city of al-Amarah, a military spokesman told AFP. "There was a road accident and one British soldier died," British Major Tim Smith said Thursday. Witnesses said the accident happened at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) and left one other soldier injured. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An injured Iraqi policeman, who fell off his vehicle while giving chase to attackers, awaits transport to hospital on a highway near Falluja January 22, 2004. (Photo by Ali Jasim/Reuters)