A FIREFIGHT erupted when US forces surrounded the home of a cousin of Saddam Hussein in the northern city of Mosul yesterday, apparently searching for the deposed dictator’s sons. The building later burned to the ground.

The US intends to maintain a tight grip in Baghdad to “fill the vacuum of authority” while helping Iraq to create its own version of democracy, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.

In one of the fastest penetrations of hostile territory ever recorded, the US 3rd Infantry division, 2nd Brigade covered 228 miles in less than 40 hours to take fighting positions near the halfway mark to Baghdad.