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MOSUL, Nov 23: Three American soldiers were killed in northern Iraq on Sunday, including two whom witnesses said had their throats cut, as the US military announced it had closed Baghdad airport to civilian traffic after a missile hit a DHL cargo jet.
Near Baghdad International Airport, two US soldiers were killed and one injured on Saturday when their Humvee was struck by an M-1 Abrams tank, the US army said on Sunday. The dead belonged to the 1st Armoured Division.
Two shopkeepers who saw the deaths of two men in this main northern city of Mosul said the two soldiers killed had their throats slit after being ambushed in traffic.
Questioned by journalists at a briefing, a senior US military spokesman said it would be “ghoulish” to comment on the testimony, but did not specifically deny it.
A formal statement said the two men from the 101st Airborne Division which patrols Mosul were killed just past noon (0900 GMT) in western part of the city centre.
“Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division Air Assault were killed just past noon (0900 GMT) today in west Mosul (the main part of the city),” said the statement read to AFP by division spokesman Specialist Joshua Hutcheson here.
They were “shot while en route from one compound to another in the city,” he said.
ANOTHER KILLED: Further south, a US soldier was killed and two wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb of the type favoured by Iraqi insurgents, a spokesman said.
“They were in a convoy and they were attacked” in Baqubah at 10.40am (0740 GMT), said Col Bill MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division which patrols north-central Iraq.
FLIGHTS SUSPENDED: Meanwhile, the US-led coalition confirmed it had ordered the suspension of all civilian flights into Baghdad after a missile strike on a cargo jet belonging to German-owned courier DHL.
“There is a hold right now on Royal Jordanian and DHL civilian aircraft ... pending further investigation,” spokesman Mark Kimmitt told a Baghdad briefing.
