Police in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have killed six people and arrested three others during their investigation into the killings of five police and security staff this month.

Police encountered nine suspects in a corn field in Ying'erlike Township, Shule County, Kashi Prefecture, on Friday evening, said a spokesman with Kashi police department.

The knife-wielding suspects tried to resist the police and put up a "desperate struggle", injuring a militia man and an armed soldier, the spokesman said.

The police fought back and shot and killed six people. The other three were injured and arrested, he said.

Initial investigations showed the suspects were linked with two attacks on Aug. 12 and 27, he added.

Four security staff were attacked at a road checkpoint in Yamanya Town, Shule County, on Aug. 12. Only one of the four survived, but with injuries. The assailants fled after the attack.

Two police staff were killed and five others were injured in a knife attack on Wednesday as they were investigating Aug. 12 attack in a corn field in Kizilboyi Town, in Kashi's Jiashi County.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2008)