US soldiers in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul shot and killed four people suspected of involvement in attacks in the region, the military said today.
The four were killed late last night in a firefight with a US military police patrol; two soldiers were wounded, the army said.
The troops had stopped a vehicle because it matched the description of one used in an earlier drive-by shooting at US forces in Mosul. Hours earlier, gunmen fired on a convoy carrying a government minister.
Inside the vehicle, soldiers found assault rifles, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher and other weapons. The statement said US and Iraqi security forces were investigating to see whether the rebels "were involved in any of the recent attacks".
The attack earlier yesterday on the convoy of Iraq's minister of public works, Mr Nisreen Berwari, left the driver and a bodyguard dead and two others injured.
A Briton and Canadian were also shot dead in Mosul. The pair had been assigned to protect foreign engineers working for General Electric, a coalition spokesman said. GE is helping rebuild Iraq's decrepit electrical infrastructure, which has suffered from war, neglect and years of sanctions.
A freelance photographer working for the Associated Press news agency was wounded when he was shot in a leg with a rubber bullet by British soldiers in the southern city of Basra today.
Nabil al-Jourani was at the scene where soldiers were trying to evict some stone-throwing squatters in a house.
AP