The house where Saddam's sons were believed to be holing up

BAGHDAD, July 22 (IslamOnine.net & News Agencies) - Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s sons Qusay and Uday were killed in an attack on a house at al-Falah district in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, July 22, U.S. army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told a press conference in Baghdad.

"Four persons were killed during that operation and were removed from the building and we have since confirmed that Uday and Qusay Hussein are among the dead," said Sanchez, commander of U.S.-led ground forces in Iraq.

He said positive identification of the bodies had been made from multiple sources, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Earlier, military sources said DNA samples of the bodies were sent to Washington for matching with specimens on file from undisclosed sources.

The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel said up to 50 U.S. armored vehicles surrounded a house in the district, while U.S. troops arrested its owner, Sheikh Nawaaf Zidan, his wife and 19-year-old son.

He asserted that Sheikh Zidan, a chieftain of an Iraqi clan, declined to comment on reports Saddam’s son where inside his house.

Witnesses said U.S. helicopter gunships fired more than 20 missiles during a six-hour gun battle.

Sanchez said four U.S. soldiers were wounded during the operation, while Al-Jazeera TV channel reported that at least three American soldiers were killed in the fierce shootout.

Zaidan, "is believed to have informed U.S. forces that Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, Qusay's son, and a bodyguard named Abdul Samad took refuge in his house", said a female relative of his who asked not to be named.

The relative and other residents of the area said the helicopter gunships fired at the house after clashes broke out when U.S. forces tried to go in to arrest those inside.

Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop of the 101st Airborne Division said that "individuals of very high interest to the coalition forces were hiding out in the building," the BBC News Online reported.

Al-Jazeera said that locals were offended by the excessive use of force by the U.S. troops.

They further said that a group of Iraqis protested in "a spontaneous" rally at the U.S. violations, asserting that one protester was killed by U.S. troops.

Zafer al-Ani, an Iraqi political analyst, told Al-Jazeera the excessive use of force by U.S. troops demonstrated that Qusay and Uday were very much likely hiding out in Zidan's house.

He said that the two might have resorted to Sheikh Zidan, noting that he might be a blood relative to Saddam.

Recently, the United States put a price of 15 million dollars on the heads of Saddam's sons each.

Soldier Killed

In another development, One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded when their vehicle came under attack by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire in an ambush on the road between Balad and Ramadi, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, AFP quoted the U.S. Central Command as saying.

The soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, Centcom said.

The attacks take to 42 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since an end to major combat operations in Iraq was declared on May 1, and to 153 troops killed in combat during the entire Iraq campaign, according to Al-Jazeera and an AFP accounts.

On Monday, July 21, three U.S. soldiers were killed and troops stationed at Ibn Firnas airport, north of Baghdad, came under a five-hour mortar attack from a group of the Iraqi resistance.

Resistance Unabated

"We will kill the spies and those who deal with them ... We will kill any soldier sent by an Arab or foreign country to our land," vowed Iraqi fighters

In a related development, an Iraqi resistance group called Saraya al-Jihad (Jihad Brigades) called for a guerrilla war against U.S. troops and for the killing of Iraqis who collaborate with the occupiers.

"We will kill the spies and traitors collaborating with the Americans," said a statement read by five armed hooded men sitting on the floor with a small portrait of Saddam on a wall behind them.

In a video aired by Al-Jazeera Monday, they urged Iraqis not to deal with the "traitors," a reference to U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials such as members of the newly-unveiled Governing Council.

"We ask our people: what are you doing about the killing of women, children and elderly men? ... We will avenge them and we will make the ground shake under the feet of those who killed them," said the men, who took turns reading from a sheet.

"We want to say that we will sacrifice ourselves for our religion and country ... Liberate Iraq through guerrilla warfare," they averred.

"We will kill the spies and those who deal with them ... We will kill any soldier sent by an Arab or foreign country to our land," vowed one of the speakers.