US troops shot Syrian guards in attack on Iraqi convoy

US TROOPS shot Syrian border guards when they launched an attack on a fleeing Iraqi convoy they believed may have contained senior members of Saddam Hussein’s regime, it was revealed yesterday.

Working partly on information from captured Iraqi leaders, special operations troops attacked the convoy near the border last week to stop what they believed were fugitives linked to Saddam's regime, three defence officials said.

It was unclear who shot first, but American forces engaged in a gunfight with Syrian border guards and several guards were hit, one senior Pentagon official said.

The guards were given medical treatment by US forces on the Iraqi side of the border, and it was unclear how many were wounded and whether any had died, he said.

Two officials said they had no reason to believe that Saddam or his sons were among the fugitives. Intelligence that prompted the attack indicated a number of higher-level Iraqis were in the convoy not necessarily Saddam, an official said.

The special Task Force 20 commando team was aided in the attack last Wednesday by fire laid down by an AC-130 gunship and other air support, one official said.

The convoy was travelling on a known smuggling route near the city of Qaim. It was unclear whether smugglers were among casualties and how many Iraqis might have been captured or killed.

But a third Defence Department official said forensics experts went to the site to collect evidence, possibly for DNA testing.

Senator Joseph Biden, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he and two other senators visiting Iraq do not know if Saddam was among those involved in the convoy attack.

Saddam and his sons are the top three on the US list of most-wanted officials in Iraq, and coalition officials say the lack of evidence about their fate is fuelling resistance to the occupation within Iraq.

There were reports over the weekend that Saddam's top aide, captured a week ago, had told US interrogators that Saddam and his two sons survived the war and escaped to Syria and other reports that they were then forced to return to Iraq. The claims, attributed to Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, could not be verified.

Meanwhile, Iraq returned to the world oil market yesterday, exporting its first crude oil since the US-led invasion. Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, and the resumption of oil exports is crucial to reconstructing the country after the war and more than 12 years of UN economic sanctions.

But sabotage and looting have threatened oil facilities and US occupation forces say Iraq is losing $50 million a week due to delays caused by sabotage and theft. The sabotage has coincided with increasing attacks on US forces, which Washington has blamed on Saddam loyalists and foreign Arab "holy fighters".