US forces closing in on Saddam after raids

An Iraqi man (L) sits blindfolded as he is detained during a early morning raid yesterday at a house in Tikrit, about 180 km north of Baghdad. In a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday morning, three Iraqis with close ties to deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were sought and captured at various locations. Tikrit is in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" and the hometown of Saddam Hussein many former supporters and aides have been arrested in the area recently. Photo: AFP

"Members of the 4th Infantry Division detained four individuals in Tikrit. Three of those individuals are believed to be former regime loyalists," a US spokesman said.

"They are being questioned as we speak."

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US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said US forces nearly captured Saddam in raids Monday near his home town of Tikrit, north of the capital Baghdad.

"I think most people feel that the noose is tightening pretty regularly around the neck of Saddam Hussein, even today there were three raids and we believe we were just hours behind Saddam Hussein," he said on CNN.

Major Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry in Tikrit told Reuters that one of the captured Saddam loyalists put up a brief struggle, and two gunshots were heard as the raid began, but there were no US casualties.

Television pictures filmed through a night vision lens showed a man being escorted from a building by American soldiers, blood seeping through a blindfold.

Aberle said Saddam was sure to be captured.

"When, I don't know, because he's a master of hiding," she said. "But when people are on the run they get tired and start making mistakes."

Officers say that after Saddam's feared sons Uday and Qusay were killed last week -- and Washington promised to pay the man who betrayed them a $30 million reward -- many more Iraqis were coming forward with information on Saddam himself.

Even in Tikrit, Aberle said, locals were helping troops.

"Even though this is his home town, the number of Iraqis, locals who actually benefited, is very small," she said. "So we actually have had quite a lot of Iraqis coming forward."

The United States is offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest or proof of death of Saddam.

Sunday, soldiers from Task Force 20, the secretive special team set up to hunt Saddam, staged a bloody raid on a villa in an upscale neighborhood of Baghdad. They found no trace of Saddam or his top lieutenants, but five Iraqis were killed when troops opened fire on cars driving near the house.

Furious locals accused soldiers of firing indiscriminately on innocent civilians. Army spokesmen declined comment, saying they were not authorized to discuss Task Force 20 operations.

Washington hopes that finding Saddam would help end a guerrilla campaign that has killed 50 US troops since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

The US military blames die-hard Saddam loyalists for the violence, and some officers had said they hoped the killing of Uday and Qusay in a fierce onslaught a week ago in the northern city of Mosul would demoralise anti-American guerrillas.