It was the fourth such shooting in the Mosul area in just over a year purportedly involving Iraqi security forces, underscoring concerns about infiltration in a city considered the last urban stronghold of Sunni insurgents.

The U.S. military said one interpreter was killed and that an American soldier died later of his wounds after the troops came under small-arms fire at a police station.

It said three other Americans were wounded in the 2 p.m. attack in Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

SOMALIA

Battles in capital leave 18 dead

MOGADISHU | At least 18 people were killed Tuesday in the Somali capital during clashes between Islamic insurgents and government soldiers backed by African Union peacekeepers, officials said. Dozens of others, including women and children, were seriously injured.

Tuesday's fighting comes two days after a suicide bomber attacked an African Union peacekeeping base, killing 11 Burundian soldiers. An extremist Islamic group called al-Shabab took responsibility for Sunday's attack.

The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization linked to al Qaeda, something the group has denied.

On Tuesday, Mogadishu's ambulance service staff collected the 18 bodies from different parts of the capital, said Rufa'i Mohamed Salad, one of the coordinators.

ARGENTINA

Bishop deported for Holocaust denial

BUENOS AIRES | A British bishop whose denial of the Holocaust embroiled the pope in controversy was expelled from Argentina on Tuesday after scuffling with a reporter at the airport.

A local television station showed the Rev. Richard Williamson raising his fist and shoving a reporter into a pole as he hurried to catch a flight for London.

Argentina's government Thursday ordered the traditionalist Catholic bishop to leave the country or face expulsion for failing to declare a job change as required by immigration law. The order also cited his denials of the Holocaust, which the government called "an insult" to humanity.

Pope Benedict XVI sought last month to help heal a rift with ultratraditionalists by lifting a 20-year-old excommunication decree imposed on Bishop Williamson and three other bishops. The pope later ordered the bishop to recant.

AFGHANISTAN

Four U.S. soldiers killed in bombing

KABUL | A roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops patrolling Tuesday in southern Afghanistan in the deadliest single attack on international forces this year. An Afghan civilian working with the Americans also died.

The troops were patrolling with Afghan forces when their vehicle struck a bomb Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. military said. The military did not release the attack's location pending the notification of relatives.

The previous deadliest attack on U.S. forces this year was an explosion in Zabul province in January that killed three soldiers.

Twenty-nine American troops have died in Afghanistan this year, compared with eight killed in the first two months of 2008.

From wire dispatches and staff reports