TIKRIT, Iraq, November 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Three U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday, November 23, and two others wounded in two separate attacks across war-ravaged Iraq.

In Baqubah, north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device of the type favored by Iraqi insurgents, a U.S. military spokesman said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"They were in a convoy and they were attacked" in Baqubah at 10:40 am (0740 GMT), said Colonel Bill MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division which patrols north-central Iraq.

"The wounded are in a stable condition," he said at the division's base in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

In Iraq's main northern city of Mosul Sunday, two U.S. soldiers were killed, hot on the heels of a drive-by shooting that killed an Iraqi police colonel, a military spokesman told AFP.

"Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division Air Assault were killed just past noon (0900 GMT) today in west Mosul," said unit spokesman Specialist Joshua Hutcheson reading from a prepared statement.

They were "shot while en route from one compound to another in the city," he said, adding that an investigation was under way."

Witnesses told AFP that they saw gunmen open fire with Kalashnikov rifles on a three-vehicle convoy in the central Ras Jada district of the city.

"The last car was hit and crashed into a wall," said Atallah Karim Omar who runs a grocery near the scene.

Both Omar and another witness, baker Raed Amer Zaffar, said the other two vehicles had continued on their way, allowing the assailants to approach the stricken soldiers and remove their helmets and flak jackets.

They disagreed whether there were three or four attackers.

An AFP correspondent said several dozen U.S. soldiers had established a cordon 300 meters (yards) from the crash site, preventing access to the scene.

However, other sources reported that the two soldiers had their throats slit by attackers.

“Two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq's city of Mosul after attackers slit their throats, witnesses say,” said the BBC Online news service, in a “breaking news”.

Qatar-based al-Jazeera Satellite Channel - also quoting eyewitnesses - said the soldiers were slaughtered, in broad day light.

Also, the Associated Press news agency said, “Attackers slit the throats of two American soldiers who were waiting in traffic in this northern Iraqi city Sunday, witnesses said”.

The attacks came only hours after an Iraqi police colonel in charge of security for oil installations in the northern city of Mosul was shot dead Saturday evening by unknown gunmen, according to police sources.

Abdel Salam Qanbar "was leaving the mosque at 8 pm (1700 GMT) when unknown assailants in a car opened fire in his direction," police general Khaled Fathi Jassim told AFP, without giving further details.

Qanbar was appointed to his post by Mosul police chief Mohammed Barhawi in coordination with the U.S.-led occupation forces.

Earlier Sunday, two U.S. soldiers were wounded when their vehicle drove over a roadside bomb north of the capital, witnesses told AFP.

Local residents told AFP the booby trap went off at around 7:30 am (0430 GMT) near the village of Al-Aswad, eight kilometers (five miles) from this hotspot town of Baqubah.

"Two soldiers were wounded and their Humvee were damaged when the bomb exploded. There was blood on the road," said Omar Mahmud, 22.

"I saw the blast and soon after the soldiers were evacuated by troops," said Khaled Alwan, 30.

An AFP correspondent who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack confirmed that there was blood on the road and a small crater where the booby-trap went off.

A U.S. army crane picked the damaged Humvee off the road as two tanks blocked the way to traffic.

A U.S. army spokesman had no immediate comment.

The northeastern province of Diyala, of which Baqubah is the capital, has long been a hotbed of anti-occupation attacks.

Iraq Names Washington Envoy

On the political level, Iraq's interim government Sunday appointed Rand Rahim Franki as ambassador to the United States, the first Iraqi envoy to Washington in 13 years.

"Mrs Rand Rahim Franki has been named Iraq's ambassador to Washington," foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari told a press conference. "This appointment proves Iraq is on the road to restoration," he said.