The US military said snipers of 22nd Infantry Regiment's 1st Battalion gunned down two Iraqi arms sellers and wounded two others on Friday at a market in Tikrit, 160 km north of Baghdad.

But reports quoted a medical source as saying that three were killed and five others, including two children, were injured in the incident.

The soldiers fired after they saw the men unloading guns from a car, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who commands the unit. He said one of the dead was a close associate to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"This is a sign of warning to those who pose threats to Iraqis and US soldiers," he said, adding "When people pick up weapons and carry them freely, they become combatants".

Russell's troops began to station snipers around the market after hearing that illegal weapons would be sold there. They foundAK-47 rifles and suspected explosive materials afterwards.

Light and heavy weapons have been rampant in Iraq in the wake of the sudden fall of Saddam's regime in April. AK-47 and Kalashnikov rifles as well as rocket-propelled grenades and mortars were often among the seized.

An analyst told the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel that the American soldiers in Iraq at large were now so nervous by rampant attacks that they were easy to act in excess.

The remarks was broadcast by the Arab channel as it showed a civilian car riddled with bullets and stained by blood after a shootout by US troops.

Five Iraqis were killed in the car on Friday at a checkpoint inal-Suleikh district in northwestern Baghdad, it reported. There was no immediate confirmation from the US military.

Some Baghdadis said the American soldiers were shooting randomly after a deadly bombing and a fierce battle stormed the capital Thursday.

The death toll from the bombing attack in front of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad rose to 17, after six more died of wounds on Friday morning.

Iraqi police is supposed to play an active role in investigating the deadliest bombing, which was termed as "terrorist attack" toward a "soft target" by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq.

Pentagon officials believed the bombing was plotted by Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group whose base had been bombed by US forces earlier in the war.

On Friday, the US military confirmed that three American soldiers were wounded in bombing and mortar attacks in Tikrit, hometown to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

It also said without giving details that four soldiers died in the last 24 hours, including one succumbing to gun wound and another dead during sleeping.

US President George W. Bush on Friday appointed Thomas Foley, one of his political fund raisers, to run Iraq's state business sector. Foley will meet US supervisor in Iraq Paul Bremer on Monday and is expected to come up with an effective privatization plan.

Meanwhile, Bush boasted in his Texas ranch that "Iraq is more secure" now, despite his commander in Iraq Sanchez admitted after the Jordanian embassy attack that the coalition was fearing further alienating the civilian population.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2003)