WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A United States military official confirmed that Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed on Tuesday in northern Iraq, local press reports said.

　　"We are certain that Odai and Qusai were killed today," AP quoted Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as saying at a news conference in Baghdad.

　　Odai and Qusai were among the four Iraqis killed in a six-hour shootout between members of the 101st Airborne Division and Iraqi gunmen inside a house in the northern city of Mosul, Sanchez confirmed.

　　"They died in a fierce gunbattle," Sanchez said, adding the bodies were still "in a condition where you could identify them."

　　The United States has put both Odai and Qusai among the most wanted Iraqis' list and has offered a 25 million dollars reward for information leading to Saddam's capture and a 15 million dollars bounty for each of Saddam's two sons.

　　Sanchez said that soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division launched the raid on the Iraqi target on a tip from an Iraqi informant that Saddam's sons were present.

　　He said the Iraqi gunmen inside the house opened fire at U.S. troops with small arms and "resisted fiercely" when they approached the building.

　　The stone columned house, which belonged to a cousin of Saddam who was a key tribal leader in the region, was left charred, smoldering and partially collapsed after the firefight, U.S. officials said earlier. End