GUNMEN ambushed American soldiers on patrol with a roadside bomb then opened fire on them in Mosul yesterday, wounding one, as fears grew that the anti-coalition insurgency was spreading north a day after two American soldiers were killed here and their bodies mauled.

An oil pipeline near the northern city of Kirkuk was on fire today and local officials said the blaze may have been caused by sabotage. In Mosul, US troops opened fire after an explosion near a military convoy, witnesses said.

Iraqi teenagers dragged two bloodied US soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and battered them with concrete blocks, witnesses said.

Gunmen killed two American soldiers today while they were driving through the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and a crowd swarmed over the scene, looting the vehicle and pummelling the bodies, witnesses said.