BAGHDAD, Jan 5: Two American soldiers killed during a joint US-Iraq patrol in the northern city of Mosul last week were deliberately shot by an Iraqi soldier, the US and Iraqi militaries said on Saturday.

An Iraqi army officer said the attacker was “working for the terrorists” while the US military said the shooting was “for reasons that are as yet unknown”.

It was the first time such an incident, believed to be rare, has been made public since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Meanwhile, a spate of roadside bombs on Saturday in Iraq’s restive Diyala province killed seven people, Iraqi officials said.

“Two US soldiers killed during a combined Iraqi Army and Coalition operation in Nineveh province on December 26 were allegedly shot by an Iraqi soldier,” the US military statement said.

“For reasons that are as yet unknown, at least one Iraqi army soldier allegedly opened fire killing Captain Rowdy Inman and Sergeant Benjamin Portell,” the statement said.

The incident happened when US and Iraqi soldiers were setting up a combat outpost, the statement said, adding that three other US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were wounded.

“The Iraqi soldier who allegedly opened fire fled the scene but was identified by other Iraqi Army personnel and was then apprehended,” it said.

“Two Iraqi Army soldiers are now being held in connection with the incident.” The commander of the Iraqi army’s 2nd Division, Brigadier-General Mutaa al-Khazarji, said the incident occurred during a joint patrol by Iraqi and US troops in western Hermat neighbourhood of the oil city of Mosul, 370km north of Baghdad.

“During clashes between the joint patrol and insurgents, an Iraqi soldier working for the terrorists opened fire on the American soldiers killing two of them,” Khazarji said.The attacker was arrested and put in an Iraqi army prison, said another senior Iraqi officer.

“Investigations are under way. We will announce the results later,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Hamed Zebari.

On the day of the shooting a US military statement said the two soldiers died “from wounds sustained from small-arms fire while conducting operations in Nineveh province.” US military commanders say Al Qaeda in Iraq has shifted its main operations to the centre-north of the country, with Mosul in Nineveh province and Baquba and Muqdadiyah in central Diyala province now the key areas.

Saturday saw fresh attacks in Diyala a day after a 24-hour traffic ban was enforced in major cities in a bid to curb a recent spate of bombings and suicide attacks.

Police Major Ahmad Hassen said six people were killed when their minibus was blown up by a roadside bomb near the town of Al-Sadiyah, 100km northeast of the provincial capital Baquba.

“Three men, two women and a child were killed,” Hassen said, adding that another two men and a woman were wounded in the blast.—AFP