MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops stormed a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday and said they killed four high-ranking allies of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
Some 200 soldiers blasted the villa with machineguns and rockets during a four-hour battle before storming in to find four bodies, U.S. officers said.
They declined to identify them or comment on local rumors Saddam's sons might have been present.
The U.S. forces have been conducting an intensive hunt for the fugitive (news - Y! TV) former dictator himself, spurred on by guerrilla attacks they blame on his die-hard supporters. Another American soldier was killed on Tuesday, the sixth in just five days.
He died as a trio of U.S. appointees prepared to address the Security Council in New York, the first Baghdad delegates to return to the United Nations (news - web sites) since Saddam fell in April.
"Individuals of very high interest to the coalition forces were hiding out in the building," Lieutenant-Colonel William Bishop of the 101st Airborne Division told Reuters in Mosul.
"This morning we went to the building and surrounded it."
Major Trey Cate, spokesman for the division, said four "high-value targets" were found dead after the battle. A fifth Iraqi also died in the fighting.
Locals said there had been rumors that the troops were hunting Saddam's sons. The younger, Qusay, was one of his father's most trusted lieutenants. Uday was famed and feared throughout Iraq (news - web sites) for his cruelty and playboy lifestyle.
Witnesses said U.S. soldiers were fired at by people inside the house as they approached. The house -- a large villa -- sustained considerable damage. Its roof was staved in, apparently by a missile.