No sign of Saddam as US ends latest search in Iraq

Operation Ivy Lightning, launched on Monday, was the latest effort by the US 4th Infantry Division to hunt down pro-Saddam guerrillas blamed for a wave of attacks that has killed 56 American soldiers since the start of May.

The operation focused on remote villages around 80 miles north of Baghdad, after intelligence reports suggested Saddam loyalists may have fled there to escape repeated raids around the deposed president's hometown of Tikrit.

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Lieutenant Colonel William MacDonald of the 4th Infantry Division told reporters at his headquarters in one of Saddam's lavish former palaces in Tikrit that progress was being made in rounding up guerrillas and lower-level Saddam loyalists.

"We're not so focused on one individual," he said.

"We're more resolved to go after mid-level leaders and foot soldiers because they are the ones recruiting and organizing subversive activity against us."

US officers said that of several people detained during Operation Ivy Lightning, all but two had been released.

Saddam remains on the run despite an intense US manhunt and a $25 million price on his head. His feared sons Uday and Qusay were killed last month in an American raid on their hideout in the northern city of Mosul.

US officers in Tikrit said that in separate raids over the past day, 14 Saddam loyalists had been detained in the restive region north of Baghdad.

Violence against occupying troops has mainly been concentrated in Baghdad and in the Sunni Muslim areas of central and northern Iraq where support for Saddam is still widespread. But chronic shortages of power and fuel also sparked unrest in the Shiite south over the weekend.

At least two Iraqis and a Nepalese security guard were killed on Sunday in violence in the city of Basra, after locals enraged by a lack of electricity and petrol confronted British troops, threw rocks and blocked roads with burning tires.