US injured Syrians in border fight

US forces engaged in the hunt for Saddam Hussein may have strayed into Syrian territory last Wednesday, triggering a firefight in which five Syrian border guards were injured, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Officials disclosed few details of the events which occurred after an American air and ground raid on three vehicles racing across the Iraqi desert towards the Syrian frontier.

It appeared that initial reports that the Iraqi leader, or his two sons, Qusay and Uday, might have been riding in the convoy were unfounded.

A Pentagon official said yesterday that intelligence reports that a senior member of the regime was heading for the border in search of exile in Syria was faulty. "There was some information that may have given us reason to believe that at first, but I am not convinced of it myself," the official said.

American forces were convinced that whoever was in the convoy was trying to flee undetected to Syria when troops opened fire from helicopter gunships and an unmanned Predator plane.

It was unclear how many were killed in the attack, but officials said at least 20 Iraqis were arrested. All have since been released, suggesting that there were no wanted officials in the convoy.

"Of the top 55 most wanted, no one was taken alive that time," the official said.

Although the White House has been critical of the government in Damascus, Syrian officials in Washington played down the significance of the clash.

"You have to understand these are desert borders, porous borders. They just accidentally ran into each other," said Imad Moustapha, the deputy Syrian ambassador to Washington. "They can easily have crossed into Syrian territory."

He said five members of a Syria border patrol were injured in the exchange. Three were seriously hurt and continued to be treated by US medics yesterday. Mr Moustapha said no Syrians were killed in the firefight, and none were taken into custody.

The Bush administration had claimed previously that Saddam was killed on March 20 during the opening hours of the war in a strike on the outskirts of Baghdad. In recent days they have come round to the idea that the Iraqi leader survived the war and is alive and in Iraq. That view has taken hold following the capture and interrogation of Saddam's personal secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti.

Although officials were disappointed not to have discovered al-Tikriti with his former masters, he gave fresh impetus to the hunt for Saddam by confirming that Saddam remained alive. He told his captors that he had fled to Syria along with Uday and Qusay and all three had been expelled.