2 U.S. Troops Killed In Iraq

Two American troops were killed Tuesday after a gunman in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire while they were distributing humanitarian aid in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

It was the third such shooting in the Mosul area in less than a year purportedly involving Iraqi soldiers, raising concerns about infiltration of the Iraqi security forces in one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq.

The gunman opened fire from about 50-100 yards away and it was not immediately clear if he was an Iraqi soldier or an insurgent in disguise, a senior U.S. military official said.

The American servicemen and Iraqi soldiers were passing out blankets near Baaj, a mainly Sunni area near the Syrian border, about 75 miles southwest of Mosul, when the midday attack occurred, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information ahead of a formal announcement.

The gunman appeared to be alone and fled the scene after the attack, the U.S. official said, adding that an investigation was under way.

An Iraqi police officer, who also declined to be identified for the same reason, said the attacker later surrendered to the Iraqi army, but that report could not be confirmed.

The attack occurred two weeks after an Iraqi soldier ambushed U.S. soldiers in a courtyard of an Iraqi military base in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood in Mosul, killing two Americans and wounding six before he died in the subsequent gunbattle.

Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, claimed that was a "premeditated" attack that occurred as the soldiers waited for their two lieutenants to finish a meeting with an Iraqi army company commander.

Iraqi officials said the Nov. 12 shooting followed a quarrel with the Iraqi soldier, but Hertling disputed that account.

Similar reports emerged after Tuesday's shooting, with the Iraqi policeman and a news report claiming an American serviceman had slapped a woman. But the U.S. military official said that report was false.

Last December, an Iraqi soldier also allegedly shot and killed a U.S. captain and a sergeant during a joint operation in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major offensive this spring to rout insurgents from Iraq's third-largest city, which American commanders at the time dubbed al Qaeda in Iraq's last urban stronghold.

The attack occurred on the eve of a vote on a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American forces to remain in Iraq through the end of 2011 under strict Iraqi guidelines. Proponents of the agreement argue the Iraqis are not yet ready to maintain security on their own.