A frontal assault on US troops by dozens of Iraqi insurgents in Mosul left an American soldier and about 25 guerrillas dead in one of the boldest attacks yet on occupying forces in Iraq.
Battle raged late last night as President George W. Bush said US forces would do all they could to make it safe for people in Mosul and elsewhere to vote in a month's time.
But today the Islamists who carried out the bloodiest attack of the war on Americans, last week in Mosul, issued a statement, echoing Osama bin Laden, and vowed to kill "infidels" who take part in the US-sponsored election on January 30.
Many in Mosul and other Sunni Arab cities in the north and west say they are too afraid even to register to vote. Leaders of the minority which dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein say that means the election will hand an exaggerated majority to Shi'ite southerners in the new assembly and government.
The fear is a cause of concern to Washington, which hopes for a broadly legitimate Iraqi government that could handle its own security and let American troops begin leaving for home.
The soldier who died in Mosul was on a patrol that was hit by a suicide car bomb close to a US outpost. Gunmen tried to overrun it, sending in another suicide truck bomber and firing mortars and rockets in an apparent bid to wipe out the unit.
About 15 US troops were wounded before jets put the attackers to flight, leaving about 25 insurgents dead, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings said.