Roadside bombs have claimed more US lives in Iraq, killing three US soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad and Sunni Muslim areas to the north of the capital.

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.

Mortar and tank fire lit up the night sky over Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as US forces mounted a massive show of force to pin down resistance fighters.