No insurgents were found during last week's search of the hospital in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.

''We had received a tip . . . that terrorist elements were there. We felt it was credible enough to act upon. We searched the hospital and came up with no detainees. I can't discuss who especially we were going after,'' Boylan said in Baghdad.

In Washington, a U.S. defense official said that U.S. officials had been alerted to ''possible terrorist activities related to'' al-Zarqawi ''in and around'' the hospital. He confirmed that no one was detained by American forces there.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the U.S. military is looking into reports that al-Zarqawi was present at the hospital and the possibility that he may be ill or wounded.

The newspaper reported that al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group had posted a statement at two mosques, including one in Ramadi, saying he was at the hospital during the April 28 raid but escaped capture. Ramadi residents told The Associated Press they had seen no such statements.