BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Three police officers were killed Wednesday when gunmen broke into a hospital in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.

    The gunmen were attempting to free an injured man who had been arrested for plotting to murder a judge in the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

    The attack occurred at Al-Jumhuriya Hospital in Kirkuk, 290 km north of Baghdad. Six police officers were also injured in the attack.

    The captured suspect was one of the eight Sunni Arabs who, on Nov. 26, allegedly plotted to kill Raed Juhi, the investigating judge who collected evidence and interviewed witnesses concerned in the trial of Saddam Hussein.

    Saddam Hussein's trial was expected to enter its third day on Wednesday.

    The attack came one day after a suicide bombing in Baghdad's major police academy, which killed 43 people, the deadliest one inthe Iraqi capital in months. Enditem