BAGHDAD, Nov. 20 -- An Iraqi police commander said Sunday that U.S. and Iraqi officials were certain that seven men who fought to the death in a house in northern Iraq were members of al Qaeda but were still trying to determine whether one of them was Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian insurgent leader.

U.S. and Iraqi forces remained deployed around the site of the three-hour gunfight Saturday at a house in the city of Mosul, north of Baghdad. Children stayed home from class on Sunday, a school day in the Islamic world, and other residents kept off the streets, presumably fearing that more fighting might result from the heavy military presence in the city.

Joint forces backed by U.S. military helicopters had surrounded the house after receiving a tip that led them to believe that Zarqawi might be inside, the governor of Nineveh province, Duraid Kashmoula, said Saturday.

Four of the fighters inside died resisting an intense air and ground assault by the U.S. and Iraqi forces, and three others blew themselves up with explosives rather than be captured, Kashmoula said. A woman was also found inside with the words "suicide bomber" marked on her chest, officials said. Brig. Gen. Said Ahmed Jubouri, a police commander in Mosul, said the force of the suicide blasts destroyed the house.

Fierce resistance on such a scale often indicates the presence of what the U.S. military calls high-value insurgent targets. U.S. intelligence officials said earlier this year that Zarqawi had vowed not to be taken alive.

Zarqawi is the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, a group allied with the larger al Qaeda organization and that is believed responsible for many suicide attacks in Iraq. Rumors about his whereabouts abound, although in recent months speculation has diminished. Kashmoula said U.S. officials retrieved the remains and were investigating whether Zarqawi was among the dead.

U.S. military officials believe it is possible that Zarqawi was killed in the raid but will not know with certainty until DNA tests are run, said a U.S. military intelligence official involved in Iraqi issues.

There is a "30 percent" chance that one of the bodies is Zarqawi's, he said. But he warned: "We've had dry holes before."...