US soldiers and warplanes killed at least 25 Iraqi fighters as they attacked an American outpost in Mosul with a car bomb and explosives, the US Army said Thursday. One U.S. soldier died in hospital after the battle.

The clash occurred late Wednesday after the fighters detonated a car bomb near a U.S. outpost in the northern Iraqi city. As reinforcements arrived, they came under fire by Iraqi fighters using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, military spokesman Staff Sgt. Don Dees said.

The Americans then called in an airstrike by aircraft which attacked some 50 Iraqi fighters at the Yarmouk traffic circle, Dees conveyed, according to the AP.