US faces humiliation in finding Saddam, WMD

Meanwhile, US forces again came under attack in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, as their efforts to focus on rebuilding were overshadowed by sabotage of fuel pipelines and a power cut across the capital.

Iraq's oil ministry said it will double the number of armed guards protecting the pipelines, a day after news that one near the Syrian border had been sabotaged in the third attack in barely 10 days.

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In the attack on the convoy, which occurred Thursday, five Syrian nationals were wounded, said a defense official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another official said the Syrians were border guards wounded in a subsequent firefight, adding that the incident may actually have occurred in Syrian territory.

US special forces and airborne troops backed by multiple aircraft, including an AC-130 gunship and helicopters, took part in the attack, launched in response to intelligence that the convoy was carrying people associated with the deposed Iraqi regime, officials said.

But afterwards, no senior Iraqi leaders appeared to be in the convoy, the officials said, despite reports that Saddam could have been travelling in it.

Meanwhile, unknown assailants launched rocket-propelled grenades overnight at US troops guarding a power station in this flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, an AFP correspondent reported Tuesday.

One Iraqi man was killed by US tank fire during searches after the attack, the second against the power station in less than a week.

A US military spokeswoman said she was unable to confirm the incident.

The attack occurred at 1:15 am (2115 GMT Monday) at a power distribution station, when two rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) were fired at the US troops guarding the facility, the correspondent witnessed.

There was no major damage caused to the power plant located on the town's main avenue.

On Friday, attackers fired an RPG at the same plant and two more against a nearby government office, destroying one of the station's two transformers.

In Baghdad, US troops were carrying out house to house searches in the southern Dura area, detaining two people and confiscating weapons, a US army officer told AFP.

The raids, which began early in the morning, involved dozens of troops patrolling on foot accompanied by Humvee jeeps and trucks. Several army helicopters were hovering overhead.

Captain Adam Carson at the scene told AFP the raids were in response to an attempted hit-and-run attack on a US soldier at a checkpoint in the area a few days earlier.

Amid the continuing insecurity, a senior oil ministry official said Iraq will double from 3,000 to 6,000 the number of armed guards protecting the country's vulnerable fuel pipelines.