A ROADSIDE bomb injured three American soldiers yesterday near Fallujah, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four US contract workers in the city.

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.

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