US Special Forces have captured Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Central Command says.

US TROOPS yesterday launched a battle for Saddam Hussein’s last stronghold of Tikrit, with hundreds of tanks said to be attacking the northern city despite a surrender offer by tribal leaders.

From palace ashtrays and pillows to jeeps and a grand piano, the spoils of war are disappearing fast in Iraq.

Coalition aircraft have bombed a complex that serves as the office of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee and, according to critics of the Iraqi president, a torture centre run by Saddam Hussein’s eldest son Uday, the US military said today.

UP to 120,000 extra US troops are to be sent to Iraq as Allied leaders faced the prospect of a drawn-out siege of Baghdad. News of the deployment came after the Iraqis promised their capital would become a graveyard for the coalition.