Baghdad  - Gunmen kidnapped two female students on their way to school to sit their final exams in northern Iraq while a US soldier died of non-combat causes, the US military and Iraqi police said Sunday.

Gunmen riding a car kidnapped the two female students to the north of Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, security sources told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The students are from Talkif, a predominantly Christian safe area in the northern Nineveh province.

The province has been the scene of a crackdown which Iraq troops backed by US forces have launched since May 10 targeting Sunni insurgents and supporters of the al-Qaeda in Iraq militant group.

In the south, gunmen attacked the house of an Iraqi merchant in Kut, 170 kilometers south-east Baghdad, and shot him dead, security sources told VOI.

Samir Mohamed Jafaar was a US citizen whose garment-importing business from China is Iraq's largest. He arrived in Iraq from abroad 10 days ago, the sources added.

The US embassy asked Iraqi police to conduct an immediate investigation into the incident.

Separately, a US soldier died of non-combat causes on Saturday, which makes him the first US soldier to die in July. A US military statement released Sunday did not give the cause of the death.

Last month, 29 US soldiers were killed in Iraq, an increase on the 19 soldiers who died in May, making it the lowest death rate since the US-led invasion in 2003. (dpa)