He also denied US involvement in a second incident Wednesday, involving an abortive bank robbery.

Several witnesses had told AFP that US troops fired on a crowd from the rooftops of government buildings here and that, in addition to the four fatalities, several more people were wounded.

In response, Captain James Jarvis told AFP someone "started shooting on our marines; we subsequently returned fire. We were engaged by two roof-top locations. We were fired upon and took well aimed fire".

He added that three local policemen were wounded in the shooting.

He denied that marines had repeated what they had done on Tuesday, firing on a crowd in the same area and, according to US military officials, killing "around seven" people.

"There was no firing on the crowd today," Jarvis said.

As to the second reported incident, an Iraqi police officer said his men had intervened in a bank raid when the Americans started shooting.

"A police patrol went to the bank to arrest the robbers. They fired a shot into the air and then the Americans, with the peshmergas (Kurdish fighters), fired on the civilians and the robbers," said Farsy Hasham, who arrived on the scene shortly after the incident.

But Jarvis said "we didn't return fire with regard to the bank robbery."

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said Wednesday at US Central Command's war base in Qatar that US forces shot dead "in the order of seven" Iraqis after coming under fire from a hostile crowd Tuesday.

Hospital sources in Mosul put the death toll in Tuesday's shootings at 15 with 28 wounded. Witnesses claimed US troops had fired shots as the crowd became increasingly hostile towards the town's new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi, who was making a speech they deemed too supportive of the United States.

SPACE.WIRE