BAGHDAD, Iraq — Confusion swirled Monday as a U.S. military official retracted his earlier report that the throats of two U.S. soldiers had been slashed during an attack on Sunday in the northern city of Mosul.

The official, who said he was receiving his information from written military reports, said the two soldiers had died of gunshot wounds to the head, and that their bodies had been pulled from their car by Iraqis and robbed of their personal belongings. He said that, contrary to some news service accounts Sunday from Mosul, the bodies of the men had not been mutilated or pummeled with rocks.

The gruesome initial accounts had been seized upon by cable news channels and tabloid newspapers as a virtual replay of the 1993 attack in which the bodies of U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. That attack, popularized in the movie "Blackhawk Down," was seen as one of the principal reasons the United States quit its military operation intended to bring order to the Somali capital.

In Monday's account, the military official said the victims, both soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, were not set upon by a mob but were shot by unidentified gunmen who stopped their car in front of the Americans' car, forcing it to halt. The assailants got out and fired at the Americans through the windshield.

The military official said that while an initial military report had said that the men's throats had been slit, further investigation revealed no evidence of such wounds. Nor were the bodies dragged through the streets, the official said.

The men killed were Command Sgt. Maj. Jerry L. Wilson, 45, of Thomson, Ga., and Spc. Rel A. Ravago IV, 21, of Glendale, Calif.

At the Pentagon, Defense Department and military officials had no explanation for the conflicting information from the field, except to repeat the usual caution that first reports are routinely incorrect. The initial reports of throats being slashed came from Iraq and were never confirmed by officials in Washington, they said.

Military and Pentagon officials confirmed that the bodies apparently were taken from the vehicle, and that valuables and weapons were stolen, but that the victims were not mutilated or dragged through the streets.