MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai died in a blaze of gunfire and rockets Tuesday when U.S. forces, acting on a tip from an Iraqi informant, stormed a palatial villa in northern Iraq. The U.S. military claimed their deaths will blunt Iraqi resistance to the American occupation.

The six-hour raid was the most successful American operation since the war and comes as a much-needed tonic for U.S. troops, who recently have suffered a dozen attacks a day by Saddam loyalists and other anti-American groups.

News of the sons' deaths touched off celebratory gunfire in Baghdad and at least one southern city. But L. Paul Bremer, Iraq's top civilian administrator, cautioned ''there will be some people who will be pretty unhappy that we killed these two guys.''

Four coalition soldiers were wounded and two other Iraqis were killed in the raid.