The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Baghdad

Mortar shells slammed into an Interior Ministry prison on Monday, killing at least seven inmates and wounding 23, officials said. A major oil refinery came under fire elsewhere in the capital, sending up billowing black smoke.

The mortar rounds hit a prison made up of several cell blocks, each containing prisoners accused of terrorism-related crimes or civil offenses, police said.

Police said American troops sealed off the area and were investigating the bombardment, which took place about 6:30 a.m. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information, and Iraqi Interior Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

A hospital official said the inmates were still asleep when the mortars hit, one landing directly on a cell and two others nearby.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a rocket or a mortar shell hit an oil refinery on Monday, police and an Oil Ministry spokesman said. The U.S. military confirmed an attack in the area.

Assim Jihad, a spokesman for Iraq's Oil Ministry, said a rocket or mortar shell landed on a storage tank around 6 a.m. He said no casualties were reported and the plant was still operating.

"The fire is under control and within a few hours it will be extinguished. This will not affect production," Assim told The Associated Press.

A police official said the fire was caused by a 120 mm mortar round.

The police and hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the attacks.

Meanwhile, the police chief of central Iraq's Babil province was killed in a roadside bombing on Sunday in the latest attack on leaders in governates south of Baghdad where a Shiite turf war is raging.

Major General Qais al-Mamoori was killed in the village of Al-Buajaj, near Babil's capital of Hilla, when a bomb struck his convoy, police Lieutenant Ali al-Shammari said. His driver and one bodyguard were wounded.

Mamoori is the third top Shiite official to be assassinated in the last four months in provinces south of the Iraqi capital and the second provincial police chief to be targeted amid intense rivalries within the Shiite factions.

Captain Muthanna Hassan, spokesman for Hilla police, confirmed that Mamoori had been killed in the attack.

Doctor Mohammed al-Saidi from Hilla general hospital said the police chief was brought alive to the facility but died on the operating table.

"After the attack he was brought to Hilla hospital and doctors started an emergency operation on him. But he died in five minutes," Saidi told AFP.

Another official from Hassan's office said police had sealed off the area where the attack took place. He added that Mamoori had recently been offered the job of adviser to the interior minister but had turned it down.

"He said he wanted to remain as the police chief. He was very popular with the people," the official said.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani hailed Mamoori as a courageous man not afraid to confront "terrorism".

"Iraq lost a courageous leader and an obedient son, a citizen who was fair, professional and always loyal to the constitution," Talabani said in a statement, adding that the police chief had sacrificed his life to improve security and confront terrorism.