A new tape aired by an Arab satellite TV broadcaster and purportedly made by Hussein on July 20, two days before Hussein's sons perished in a four-hour gunbattle here, called on fighters loyal to him to persist in their uprising against the U.S.-led occupation force.

American soldiers on patrol in Tarmiyah, a town 30 miles north of Baghdad, were elated by the news of the deaths of Hussein's eldest sons.

"This is the best thing that can happen to the coalition," said Army Capt. Sean C. Nowlan, 31, of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Infantry Division. "It deflates their campaign against us."

But the euphoria was short-lived.

On Wednesday, a U.S. soldier was killed and six wounded in an attack on a convoy near Mosul, the same northern town were Uday and Qusay died, the military reported. In a separate incident Tuesday night, a convoy was attacked in Ramadi, 60 miles west of the capital, killing one soldier and wounding two more.

The two deaths brought to 155 the number of American soldiers killed since the war began March 20, surpassing by eight the death toll in the 1991 Gulf War.

In the tape, Hussein purportedly said: "Yes, this war has not ended. . . .The will of the people will not be subdued by the enemy."

There was no way to immediately and independently verify it was the former dictator, although it sounded like him.

Commenting on the tape, Mohammed al-Douri, Iraq?s former ambassador to the United Nations, said it was Hussein but that he no long has any significant influence in the country.

"It is an attempt on behalf of Saddam Hussein to tell the Iraqi people and the world that he is still there,? he said. ?This is his voice, Saddam is there, but I do not think that he has any effective role over the Iraqi people."