Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and a fourth seriously wounded on Friday when unknown gunmen opened fire on them at a military checkpoint in Mosul, a coroner and police said.
Three assailants in a car sprayed bullets at the soldiers who were guarding a checkpoint at the entrance of a palace formerly used by Saddam Hussein, a police officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.
"Coroner Ahmed Abdullah Rajaf confirmed the death toll at the hospital in Mosul, 370 kilometres north of Baghdad.
The former Iraqi army, once 350,000-strong, was dissolved last May by US civilian administrator Paul Bremer.
Since then three US-trained battalions have been formed to replace it, as part of coalition plans to stand up a 27-battalion army numbering some 40,000 soldiers by the end of the year.