A military spokesman confirmed that the operation involved Task Force 20, which is leading the search for Mr. Hussein, but he declined further comment about what led to the raid and whether the troops had found any evidence that the deposed dictator had recently been there.

The owner of the home that was raided, Rabia Muhammad al-Habib, a prominent tribal leader, said he had not seen Mr. Hussein for more than a year, but he acknowledged that he was "respected" by Mr. Hussein and that they used to meet occasionally. Mr. Habib was away from his home when the troops arrived.

The shootings outraged local residents, who said the Americans had not offered adequate warnings before firing on the Toyota and on another car half a block away, in which three other people were wounded. The people in the Toyota were members of a family that lived near the site of the raid, said Qais Estefan Ibrahim, who said he was a neighbor.

Witnesses said two other people traveling in a sport utility vehicle had also been shot by soldiers who chased their vehicle after it left the scene. Other reports from a Baghdad hospital said a total of five Iraqis had died during the operation.

American officials said that since the killings on Tuesday of Mr. Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, an increasing stream of tips from informants had moved them closer to capturing Mr. Hussein himself. On Thursday night, American forces arrested nearly a dozen of his personal bodyguards in Tikrit, his hometown. Today, The Associated Press reported, troops acting on information gleaned from the bodyguards raided three Tikrit farmhouses and, according to the soldiers, barely missed seizing Mr. Hussein himself and his security chief.

"In my opinion, if he's alive, it's just a matter of time," Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Baghdad today. "He is so busy saving his own skin, he is having no impact, no impact on the security situation." 

While American officials had held out hope that the killings of Uday and Qusay Hussein would weaken the violent resistance to American troops, attacks by insurgents continued today. One soldier was killed and another wounded at 2:30 a.m. when a rocket-propelled grenade struck their patrol in Al Haswah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The soldier was attached to the First Marine Expeditionary Force.

Fourteen American servicemen have been killed in hostile attacks since July 20, the deadliest period for Americans in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared the end to major combat operations. Since May 1, 49 Americans have been killed in hostile attacks and 55 have died from other causes, like traffic accidents and accidental weapons discharges, a senior military official in Baghdad said today.

The shootings this afternoon created an uproar among residents in Mansur, the Baghdad neighborhood, who said the Iraqis had been gunned down with little warning after traveling onto a street that the Americans were trying to block off. The street was one block west from where the raid later took place. 

"They suspected that Saddam was in one of the homes, and they cordoned off the area," said Lt. Aodee Sami, an Iraqi police officer on the scene. He said three people had died in the Toyota and one had been wounded. The driver of the Toyota was an older man who used a crutch or a cane, neighbors said. 

The intensity of the shooting was evident from the condition of the Toyota, which had at least two dozen bullet holes in its front and rear windshields. Witnesses said three of the passengers, including an older woman who was wounded but not killed, were immediately taken from the car, but the body of the driver remained in the vehicle for some time.

A military spokesman, Capt. Jeff Fitzgibbons, would not comment on the deaths except to confirm that the operation involved Task Force 20. But speaking generally about how soldiers react when Iraqi drivers fail to heed orders to halt, he said, "If you cross a roadblock, we assume you mean to do harm."

This evening, Mr. Habib, the owner of the house, who said he had just returned from a trip out of Baghdad, showed reporters broken windows and other damage that he said came from bullets fired by Americans during the raid. He also displayed what he said had been a locked desk that had been forced open and searched. 

Mr. Habib scoffed at the notion that Mr. Hussein had been hiding in his house. But, he said, "if anybody said he would seek refuge in my home, people would believe it." Commenting on their relationship, he added: "He was president of Iraq, and we would meet from time to time. He was helpful, and he respected me very much."

In an incident late Saturday in Karbala, a city about 60 miles south of Baghdad where relations with the occupation forces have been fairly calm, a 30-year-old cafeteria worker was shot during a confrontation between soldiers and an unruly crowd. Today, during the man's funeral, mourners chanted, "There is no God but God, and America is the enemy of God!" 

Accounts of the worker's death vary, but apparently Iraqi police officers tried to intervene with some local criminals and were overwhelmed. They then sought help from American troops. 

When the Iraqi officers pursued the criminals into a shrine, people nearby thought the American soldiers were going to enter, too, and began pelting them with cans and stones. The Americans fired, first into the air and then into the crowd, killing the cafeteria worker.