Son of Saddam!

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 22 — The two sons of Saddam Hussein targeted by allied forces, Uday and Qusay, were killed today in an extended firefight with American troops in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the United States military said.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of allied ground forces in Iraq, announced the deaths hours after a six-hour confrontation in which American soldiers destroyed a house that the two sons were seen running into.

"We're certain that Uday and Qusay were killed today," General Sanchez said, adding "We used multiple sources to identify the individuals."

The two men were seen exiting a car and racing into a house in the eastern part of the city around 9 a.m. and were videotaped, Kurdish officials said. They said the tape was quickly handed over to the American military, who identified the men and surrounded the house with troops from the 101st Airborne.

The people inside responded by opening fire on the troops. United States forces retaliated, and the boom of high-powered weaponry shattered the calm of the area for hours, said the Kurdish officials, including one eyewitness. The house was completely shattered by the assault, which included attacks by at least one helicopter gunship. Four bodies were found inside.

"They died in a fierce gun battle," General Sanchez said of Mr. Hussein's sons. "They resisted the detention and the efforts of the coalition force to go in and apprehend them. And they were killed in the ensuing gun fight."

The bodies of the two sons, General Sanchez said, "are in a condition where you could identify them." He said the bodies had been transported to Dubai.

The American military said it was working on confirming the identity of the other two people killed. According to Kurdish officials, one is believed to be Mustapha, a teen-age son of Qusay, and the other a bodyguard who always travels with Uday.

The deaths represent the elimination of the two most sought-after members of the regime after Saddam Hussein himself. Qusay and Uday were No. 2 and No. 3 — right behind their father — on the American military's most-wanted list of 55 members of Mr. Hussein's regime.

Before today, American forces had announced the capture of 34 Iraqis on the most-wanted list. Mr. Hussein still remains at large and American officials say he may be hiding out in Iraq.

The United States government had offered a $15 million reward for each son, both of whom were key lieutenants for the deposed president. Asked whether those rewards will be paid out, General Sanchez said: "We're pursuing that at this point in time. I would expect that it probably will happen."

Qusay, 37, the younger, calmer brother, was in charge of his father's security detail, the Special Republican Guards. Uday, 39, a infamous playboy feared for his sadistic bent, organized the Fedayeen Saddam using pardoned criminals who would be given a new lease on life if they would kill for the regime.

The death of the two sons, analysts believe, would be the biggest development in ending Baath Party rule since Baghdad fell on April 9. Some say they believe it might diminish but not eliminate attacks that have killed around 40 United States soldiers since President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1.

General Sanchez said he believed the deaths of the two sons would have a beneficial impact for American forces.

"This will prove to the Iraqi people that at least these two members of the regime will not be coming back into power," the general said, "which is what we stated over and over again. And we remain totally committed to the Hussein regime never returning to power and tormenting the Iraqi people."

Even before the identity of the bodies was confirmed, celebratory gunfire erupted across Baghdad tonight as Iraqis celebrated the news, the night sky illuminated with tracer fire.

"I don't think it is possible, but if it is true, they deserved whatever happened to them," said Omar Salam, 22, eating his dinner at a roadside cafe with gunfire erupting all around him.

Most Iraqis will breath a sigh of relief that Mr. Hussein's two most likely successors have been eliminated. It leaves Mr. Hussein as the main target of the continuing manhunt.

In Mosul, a retired army general, Ali Jajawi, who lives 100 meters from the house, said that this morning people saw the house's owner, Nawaf Al-Zaydan, and his son Shahlan in American vehicles. It was difficult for people to get close to them, but some managed to ask some questions.

People asked him what had happened and Nawaftold them that Uday and Qusay were inside the house. He had gone to bring breakfast for them, he said, and the Americans arrested him.

Neighbors found it strange because he was smoking in the car and appeared totally calm, leading many to believe that he had turned the men in, said Farhan Sharafani, a member of the Kurdish parliament.

Both Nawaf and his brother Salah Al-Zaydan, had been prosecuted by the regime under a law promulgated several years ago making it illegal to claim kinship with the president's family. They both claimed they were part of the Albu Nasser tribe and were jailed for it, said Ghazi Ajil Al-Yawar, a member of Iraq's Governing Council from Mosul.

Mosul is located about 240 miles northwest of Baghdad, outside the so-called "Sunni Triangle" in central Iraq — home to much of the remaining support for Mr. Hussein, a Sunni Muslim who used his Baathist Party to oppress the country's Shiite majority.

In other violence today in Iraq, an American soldier was killed and another injured in an ambush along a road north of Baghdad.

The death brought to 149 the number of American soldiers killed in action since the war began on March 20, according to the United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. Eighty-one American soldiers have died in non-combat accidents since the start of the war, the military said.