Baghdad  - Three US soldiers were killed in a road accident in southern Iraq, pushing up the number of US troops killed in December to nine, the US military said Wednesday.

The deaths bring the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion to 4,216, according to the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

November 2004, which witnessed fierce battles between US forces and armed groups in Falluja, Anbar province, remains the month that saw the highest ever US death toll with 137.

Also Wednesday, four Iraqi soldiers were wounded in an explosive attack that targeted their patrol vehicle in eastern Mosul.

"Two of them were critically wounded," the source told VOI, adding that the vehicle was damaged in the attack.

Also in Mosul, seven civilians, including two children, were injured in a suicide bombing, a local source said.

The head of Nineveh's southern al-Qayara district, Saleh Hassan, told VOI that a truck bomb, driven by a suicide bomber, had ripped through the al-Aghr village, 60 kilometres south of Mosul.

"Seven civilians, including two children, were slightly wounded in the explosion," Hassan said, adding that three houses were damaged. (dpa)