US troops continue raids as ‘net closes’ on Saddam

US soldiers raided homes and farmhouses in the hostile Sunni heartland around Baghdad yesterday, detaining dozens of suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists and saying the net was closing on the deposed dictator himself.

Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in the restive towns of Falluja and Ramadi west of the capital in the “Sunni triangle”, mounted a series of raids, the US Army said.

“Twenty former regime loyalists, including a targeted leader, were captured,” a US military statement said.