Gunmen in a vehicle shot Sheikh Faidh Mohammed Amin al-Faidhi as he was leaving a place of worship in Mosul's Al-Rifaq district at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT).

"The cleric was shot four times, in his chest and abdomen, and died shortly after he was transferred to hospital," said Abdel Jabbar Mohammed, a doctor at Medinat al-Teb hospital.

The cleric was a member of the Council of Muslim Scholars -- the top Sunni Muslim authority in Iraq -- and the brother of the organisation's spokesman in Baghdad, Mohammed Bashar al-Faidhi.

"A Task Force Baghdad soldier died from wounds sustained in an attack at about 10 pm (1900 GMT) on November 21 in southwestern Baghdad," the statement said without elaborating.

The latest death brings to 1,215 the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion of the country, according to Pentagon figures.

Earlier four more bodies, at least three of them Iraqi soldiers, were found in the past 24 hours by the US military in the restive northern city of Mosul, a US army officer said on Monday.

"We found them at 2300 (2000 GMT Sunday), they had been dead for at least a couple of hours and their bodies set against the sidewalk, shot in the head and hands tied," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Kurilla told AFP, adding that three of them were confirmed as being Iraqi soldiers.

The bodies were found near the Al-Yarmuk roundabout, an insurgent stronghold in western Mosul, and brought to 15 the number of Iraqi soldiers thought to have been executed by rebels in Iraq's third largest city over the past two days.

Two bodies, one confirmed as a soldier, were found earlier on Sunday dumped on a busy street in the New Mosul neighbourhood after nine other corpses were discovered Saturday in a nearby industrial area.

Kurilla explained the slain soldiers were probably seized on their way to their barracks at a US base, where a contingent of 500 of them had been sent to take part in US-led operations, which started last week, to wrest the city from rebel control. Despite the US show of force, insurgents have struck back at Iraq's fledgling security forces and waged an intimidation campaign to spread fear among Iraqi recruits.

US commanders have promised tough action against insurgents, whom they say are only creating the perception that they are in control.

"We are going to deny them freedom of movement," said Kurilla, promising more raids and sweeps against rebel hideouts.