Three U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq

TIKRIT, Iraq – A series of separate attacks in Iraq killed three more U.S. soldiers and injured 11 others, U.S. military officials said Monday.

The news of the attacks on Sunday and Monday took place as Army officials expressed differing opinions about the possible whereabouts of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (search).

The recent military personnel deaths brings to 97 the number of U.S. soldiers known to have been killed in hostile action since May 1, when President Bush declared major combat over.

Military officials on Monday did not release the names of any of those killed or wounded in the recent attacks. According to the military:

-- One soldier from the 4th Infantry Division (search) was killed Monday and another two were injured when unknown assailants attacked a convoy with a roadside bomb and small arms fire in Jalawla, a town about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad.

-- One soldier died in downtown Tikrit after a rocket-propelled grenade struck the Bradley fighting vehicle he was using on patrol Monday.

-- One Bravo Company (search) soldier was killed and another injured in a land mine explosion in Beiji, 120 miles north of Baghdad, on Sunday night.

Elsewhere in Iraq, other attacks on allied forces continued.

An explosion on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra slightly injured a British soldier on Monday, the British military said, but it gave no details. Basra residents said the explosion occurred as the soldier's vehicle was passing a gasoline station.

Clues Into Saddam's Location?

One of the biggest lingering questions of the war’s aftermath was renewed on Monday as an Army official suggested that Saddam has been in his hometown of Tikrit recently.

"We have clear indication he has been here recently," Maj. Troy Smith (search), executive officer of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, told reporters. Smith also said Saddam is believed to be exerting influence within the resistance that has been killing American soldiers at a rate of nearly one every two days.

But military officials at the Pentagon said Smith's comment was not a definitive statement about Saddam.

“I had intelligence regarding his whereabouts, I would act on it,” said Lt. Col. Steve Russell (search), the U.S. military spokesman in Tikrit, during a briefing Monday.

Seeking Answers From Baghdad Hotel Blast

Meanwhile, the U.S. administrator of postwar Iraq promised to seek justice for those killed and injured in a deadly car bomb attack in Baghdad on Sunday.

One guard and five bystanders were killed in the homicide bombing at the Baghdad Hotel. It was the seventh in a series of vehicle bombings in Iraq that have killed more than 140 people since early August.

"We will work with the Iraqi police to find those responsible and bring them to justice," Iraq's U.S. civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said after the bombing. So far, none of the planners of the previous bombings has been found.

Two cars exploded nearly simultaneously, but military spokesman Lt. Col. George Krivo said Monday it was unclear whether the second car was part of the attack or if its fuel tank had been ignited by the first blast.

The Pentagon said gunfire from Iraqi guards and U.S. personnel aborted the plan to hit the hotel, home to officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority and reportedly some members of Iraq's interim Governing Council.

The six victims and 32 injured reported at al-Kindi Hospital -- four in critical condition -- were all Iraqis, authorities said. The U.S. military said three Americans were slightly injured.

Fox News' Bret Baier and The Associated Press contributed to this report.