US soldiers opened fire yesterday on a civilian vehicle fearing that it was carrying a suicide bomber, AP announced.

According to the American and Iraqi officials, as a result of the accident which took place outside the US base in Baqouba, two adults and one child have lost their lives.

In a previous incident, a suicide bomber had tried to detonate a car into the US vehicles, but he missed and killed five civilians instead.

Last weekend, the US soldiers and the Iraqi raided a house in Mosul, after receiving a tip that the location was used by al-Qaeda members and also by their leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Following the shootout, eight insurgents and four Iraqi policemen have lost their lives; Iraq's Exterior Minister said that DNA tests will be carried out to check if the al-Qaeda leader was among the victims.

"Unfortunately, we did not get him in Mosul", US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad declared.

A neighbor said that the house was occupied by eight Arabs - four men, a woman and three children - who had been leaving there for a year. He added that they weren't Iraqis, but most likely Syrians and Jordanians.

The Mosul shootout came shortly after a suicide attack on the Shiite mosques in Khanaqin, which took place on Friday and killed 74 persons.