Baghdad, Iraq ? Gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades killed three American soldiers Thursday from the 101st Airborne — the division that carried out the deadly assault on Saddam Hussein’s sons — another sign insurgents are intent on driving U.S. troops from Iraq.

A new tape, meanwhile, showed Saddam’s Fedayeen militiamen vowing to avenge the killings of Odai and Qusai Hussein.

Despite the new attacks, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, told a Pentagon news conference the deaths of Saddam’s sons “will, in fact, in time help reduce the security threat to our forces.”

“In the initial period I would not be surprised to see an uptick in violence against our forces,” he said, emphasizing that in the long run the sons’ deaths would likely encourage Iraqis to give authorities tips about other members of the Baath Party.

The soldiers killed Thursday were traveling in a convoy toward Qayyarah, 185 miles north of the capital, Baghdad, when they were attacked about 2:30 a.m. No other soldiers were reported wounded.

It was the second attack in two days that killed members of the division that led the fiery assault in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that killed Odai and Qusai Hussein. The U.S. military released photos that appeared to show the battered, bloody faces of the deposed dictator’s dead sons.

On Wednesday, two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks on their convoys, including one near Mosul.

The latest deaths brought to 158 the number of U.S. servicemen killed in action since the war began March 20, surpassing by 11 the death toll in the 1991 Gulf War.

Two Iraqis were also killed Thursday when their car approached a U.S. military checkpoint near the al-Geilani mosque in downtown Baghdad and American troops opened fire.