5 U.S. Troops Added To Death Toll in Iraq

Recently, the suspect had discussed the killings while showing a video CD of the soldiers' kidnapping at a mosque in Yusufiyah, the military said. He is also suspected of other kidnappings and killings in the area. One other person was detained in the raid but later released, and no civilians were killed, the military said.

Also Thursday, a roadside bomb exploded near a gas station in western Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 21, according to an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A car bomb exploded at a main intersection in the Mashtal neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad, killing three police officers and wounding five others, the official said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide bomber blew up his car at the headquarters of the Kurdish Democratic Party in the northern city of Mosul, killing two civilians and wounding 19, according to Abdul Karim Mohammad al-Jubury of the Mosul Police Operations Room.

At Camp Cropper, a U.S. military prison near the Baghdad airport, Saddam Hussein bade farewell to two half brothers -- who are also being held at Camp Cropper -- in a rare prison meeting as he awaited execution, one of his attorneys said, according to the Reuters news agency.

U.S. and Iraqi officials gave conflicting accounts of whether Hussein would hang within days. A senior Bush administration official said the ousted president could go to the gallows as soon as Saturday, Reuters reported.

Iraqi officials, however, backed away from suggestions they would definitely hang him within a month, and a minister said a week-long religious holiday would stall any execution.

Staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.