US snares nephews of former Iraq VP

US forces moved a step closer to the most wanted man in Saddam Hussein’s regime yesterday, detaining his four nephews in a pre-dawn raid and capturing another top fugitive thought to be a paymaster in the anti-coalition insurgency.

In the Sunni Triangle region that has been the heart of the guerrilla war, a car bomb exploded in front of a police station in the town of Baqouba, killing the driver and two other Iraqis and wounding 31, including civilians and police. Outside Samarra, US troops killed eight Iraqis after their patrol came under fire.

The detention of the nephews of former Iraqi Vice-President Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri came in a raid Wednesday in Samarra, prompted by a tip. Al-Douri has a $10 million bounty on his head and is suspected to have been orchestrating insurgent attacks.

About 40 soldiers from the 720th Military Police Battalion based in Fort Hood, Texas, swept into two houses capturing one of the targeted nephews and his two brothers in one house, then the second targeted nephew in a nearby home.

The two "main targets" are believed to be in close touch with al-Douri and to have helped him hide by finding safehouses, Lt Col David J. Poirier of Chicago said.

"They have information they can provide to us ... that would be extremely important," Poirier said. "One of these days his (al-Douri's) head will rise up above the water, and we will be able to capture him as well."

All four were taken to a detention facility at the 4th Infantry Division based inside one of Saddam's palaces in Tikrit, 120 miles north of Baghdad.

In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, US troops captured Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, no. 54 on the list of 55 most-wanted figures, the military said yesterday.

Al-Muhammad was arrested Sunday, Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said. US officials have described al-Muhammad, a former regional party leader in Karbala, as the paymaster for insurgent forces in Anbar, Iraq's largest province which includes such hotspots as Fallujah and Ramadi.

US officers in Anbar, which borders Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, said al-Muhammad was the most highly sought-after fugitive in the province.

With al-Muhammad's arrest, 12 fugitives remain from the list of 55 most-wanted figures from Saddam's ousted regime. Al-Douri, a former Revolutionary Command Council vice-chairman, is the highest-ranking still at large at number six.

Al-Douri's wife and daughter were arrested on November 26 and remain in custody.

Elsewhere, an American soldier from the 101st Airborne Division died late Tuesday in a non-hostile incident in northern Iraq, raising the US death toll to 496 since the conflict began.