U.S. troops searching for leaders from the former Iraqi government killed four people in a firefight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today and among them may have been the sons of Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials said.

Details of the attack were very sketchy in Washington and there was no immediate confirmation of the deaths. But one intelligence official said, "Among the dead may be Uday and Qusay" Hussein. Another official said that two of the bodies bore strong physical resemblance to the men. Both men were among their father's closest advisers and had been listed as aces in the deck of cards depicting former Iraqi officials being sought by U.S. troops.

The dead did not include Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at his regular briefing that President Bush was aware of the reports and the attack but that they had no confirmation yet of the deaths. He said Bush had been in regular contact with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this morning on the issue.

Before the attack, U.S. troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division had targeted the home in Mosul, which some wire reports said may have been owned by a Hussein relative. The target was chosen because of information from intelligence agencies who suspected high ranking members of Hussein's inner circle were there.

The resistance was reportedly fierce when the U.S. troops arrived this morning.

U.S. officers told the Reuters news agency that as many as 200 U.S. soldiers from had attacked the villa with machine guns and rockets during a four-hour battle.

"Individuals of very high interest to the coalition forces were hiding out in the building," Lt. Col. William Bishop of the 101st Airborne 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 and at least five were hurt.

Along with their father, Uday and Qusay are the top three on the U.S. list of most-wanted officials in Iraq. Qusay had headed the elite Republican Guard for his father and was widely viewed as his father's obvious successor. Uday, the elder son, published the official Iraqi newspaper Babel and headed the militia, Saddam's Fedayeen. Uday Hussein was the ace of hearts and Qusay Hussein the ace of clubs in the cards handed out by the U.S. military.

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq had offered $15 million for information leading to the arrest or contributing to the confirmation of the deaths of the former Iraqi president's two sons.

Last month's capture of Hussein's closest aide, Hussein Abid Hamid Mahmud, in a house in Tikrit, the former leader's hometown, gave a new impetus to the hunt for Hussein and his two sons.

Mahmud was one of the few people whom the former president is believed to have trusted completely. According to U.S. Defense Department officials, Mahmud told U.S. authorities that Hussein and his sons survived the war and that the sons had escaped with Mahmud to Syria, only to be forced to return to Iraq, The Washington Post's Bradley Graham reported last month. The officials said Mahmud also described a plan by Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay, to split up to increase their chances of survival as U.S. forces closed in on Baghdad in April.

At the time, officials expressed uncertainty about whether Mahmud was telling the truth, and one official said Mahmud had not provided specific information on where Hussein might be found.

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