Two US marines were shot dead by snipers in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. One of the marines was killed by a sniper as he climbed a ladder. The second died after he was hit in the neck as he passed a window, the officer said Thursday, according to AFP. A third marine was shot and injured in the leg, the source said, adding that the shootings happened in the industrial zone of Fallujah. Meanwhile, Iraq's interior minister Nuri Badran announced that he had submitted his resignation after US overseer Paul Bremer criticized the performance of his ministry, mainly the police. "I am resigning now," he told a press conference Thursday. "Bremer is not happy with the performance of the interior ministry," he noted. Bremer also felt there was a need to restore ethnic balance in the distribution of two key security portfolios: defense and interior, Badran added. Like the newly appointed interim defense minister Ali Allawi, Badran is a Shiite Muslim. Later in the day, the minister of human rights also resigned. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A wounded U.S. soldier is tended to by colleagues after an attack on their convoy in Fallujah, Iraq, in this image made from video Thursday, April 8, 2004. (AP Photo/US Pool via APTN)