The search for Saddam Hussein gained fresh impetus yesterday after US soldiers killed his two sons Uday and Qusay in a fierce six-hour battle with machineguns and rockets at a villa in northern Iraq.

Celebratory shots rang out in Baghdad overnight, but sceptical Iraqis said they wanted proof of the deaths. Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said he would provide evidence to show beyond doubt that the two men had been killed when 200 soldiers backed up by helicopters attacked the villa in Mosul.

He told that the deaths of Uday and Qusay ? tracked down after a tip-off from a walk-in informant who stands to gain at least some of the two $15 million rewards for information on their whereabouts ? showed that Saddam himself could not hide forever. ?It confirms that we will succeed in our hunt for former regime members, and in particular Saddam Hussein, wherever they are and however long it takes,? he said.

$25 million bounty for Saddam

Sanchez said the killings of Uday, 39, and Qusay, two years younger, would also deal a blow to guerrillas who have staged a wave of attacks and ambushes on US forces in Iraq, claiming the lives of 41 American soldiers since George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1. Paul Bremer, the US administrator of Iraq, said there was a risk of revenge attacks by Saddam loyalists.

?We could see attacks in the next few days as revenge. But you have to remember that a lot of the attacks that are taking place are being based on the idea that somehow the Saddams are coming back, that he is coming back,? he said. ?Well, they are not coming back. But now two of them are dead. It won?t be long before we get the father.?

The United States has offered $25 million for information leading to the capture or killing of Saddam. ?I think we now have a possibility of somebody coming with the big one, somebody who really wants to get the $25 million reward,? said Bremer.

?It will move the day a bit closer when we get our hands on the father.? Many Iraqis still doubted Saddam?s sons were dead. ?I don?t believe they are dead because Saddam would never let his sons travel together,? said Nasheet Chalabi, who owns a grocery shop in Mosul.

A leading pro-US Iraqi politician said Qusay was behind many of the attacks on US troops. ?He was in charge of the network that was causing a great deal of the trouble,? Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, told reporters.

Hated figures in Iraq

?This is very important. This will contribute considerably to reducing attacks on coalition soldiers,? he said in New York. ?Both of those characters are hated figures in Iraq.? But Wamidh Nazmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University, said the killings would not end guerrilla attacks.

?I do not think that Saddam and his two sons are a very important part of the resistance (...) and if they have any role it is a minimal one,? he said. ?So I don?t think the deaths of the sons of the former president will affect the resistance, nor even the death of Saddam himself.?

Uday and Qusay were not noticeably close in life, but they went down fighting side by side in the violent tradition of their clan. Barricading themselves into the villa, they resisted US troops for several sweltering hours.

Two other bodies removed from the villa were a grandson of Saddam and an aide of Uday, a US official said.

Bush :?Positive news?

Uday lost his father?s trust after years of high living and brutal behaviour, beating to death one of Saddam?s aides in 1988, abusing women and narrowly surviving an assassination attempt in 1996. But he still led Saddam?s Fedayeen militia, remnants of which some US officials blame for recent attacks.

Their deaths will be a boost to Bush. He has been under pressure over mounting US casualties and the failure to find any of the chemical, biological or nuclear weapons he used to justify war despite widespread international opposition.

Bush himself welcomed their deaths as ?positive news?. His closest Iraq war ally, British Prime Minister, Tony Blair who is also under heavy fire over the conflict, said the deaths marked a ?great day for the new Iraq?.

Andrew Marshall