Posted on 07/22/2003 7:44:40 AM PDT by nypokerface
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.
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 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 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 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.
SOLDIER KILLED
U.S. forces have announced the capture of 34 of the 55 Iraqis on a most-wanted list of members of Saddam's regime, but Saddam and his sons have not been found.
U.S. officials say Saddam is probably still alive and hiding somewhere in Iraq. Audio tapes said to have been made by the deposed leader have been given to Arab television networks, exhorting Iraqis to fight occupying U.S. and British troops.
The death of the 39th U.S. soldier to be killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared the war over on May 1 highlighted the continued pressure his forces are under. Bush said on Monday he would welcome military help from abroad.
But allies like France, Germany and Russia, which hotly opposed the U.S. and British invasion, want a clearer U.N. mandate before getting involved in a messy situation which they had warned Washington could be the result of going to war.
Iraq is on the agenda for Tuesday's Security Council meeting where three delegates from Iraq's new Governing Council will ask the United Nations to recognize the U.S.-appointees as representing the Iraqi people, a political source in Baghdad said.
But diplomats at the United Nations, scene of so much sharp diplomatic skirmishing over Iraq before U.S. bombs began falling on March 20, said Washington's nominees would not be allowed to take up Baghdad's seat in New York for now.
The soldier who died on Tuesday was from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the U.S. military said.
He was killed and another soldier wounded when a convoy was struck by rocket-propelled grenade and gun fire northwest of Baghdad, in an area dominated by the minority Sunni Muslims from among whom Saddam drew much of his support.
SELF-RULE WRANGLES
Aside from the violence of the guerrillas, the U.S. occupying forces are also under pressure from many ordinary Iraqis to restore basic services damaged by U.N. sanctions and the war and to let them resume control of their own country.
The 25-member Governing Council, appointed by the U.S. authority in Baghdad nine days ago, has yet to make much of a mark, however, for all its presence at the United Nations.
Made up of representatives of Iraq's various and often fractious religious and ethnic communities, it has yet to choose a leader or determine the structure of power within the Council, let alone appoint ministers to help run the country.
Stung by media reports of squabbling over the leadership, the Council issued a statement on Tuesday saying it had not yet even "discussed this issue at all." On their appointment, several members said picking a leader was their top priority.
It is not clear what their meetings have been devoted to.
In New York, Security Council diplomats said the delegation from Baghdad had been arguing over which of them was to address the chamber.
More mis-information on the part of Reuters (populated by weenie liberal pansies) ... Bush did not declare the war over ... he said the major ground offensive portion of the Iraq war was completed.
You're right ... that was President Bush's exact quote.
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