Today I am going to blog about the article: Iraqi police shoot dead four US soldiers.

The incident took place during a US army visit to the Mosul headquarters of the Iraqi police in charge of protecting the city's bridges. The bullet-riddled body of the interpreter was taken to the local mortuary.

It was the third such fatal shooting involving US soldiers in just over a year in Mosul, one of the country's most restive cities. Example: On November 12, an Iraqi soldier shot dead two US soldiers in the city before being shot dead himself.

Iraqi officials said the soldier opened fire after an altercation with the Americans during a joint patrol in the city, but the US military insisted it was an unprovoked shooting inside an Iraqi army compound.

Iraq's defence ministry spokesman, said that the shooting took place during a joint patrol to inspect security procedures in Mosul, which the US army says is Al-Qaeda's last urban bastion in Iraq.

An official in the Iraqi interior ministry said "a US soldier slapped an Iraqi soldier during the patrol."

A similar incident took place in Mosul in January 2007 when an Iraqi soldier opened fire on American troops during the erection of a combat outpost in the city, killing two US soldiers.

US and Iraqi forces operate together throughout the country, and the United States has long said that the training of Iraqi troops and police is a central part of its military strategy.