Troops arrest Saddam’s bodyguards

US forces, acting on a tip from an informant, have arrested several men believed to be part of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s personal security detachment during a raid south of Tikrit, a senior US military commander said yesterday.

"I believe that we continue to tighten the noose," Major General Ray Odierno, commander of the US Army's 4th Infantry Division, told reporters at the Pentagon during a teleconference from Tikrit. "I believe we continue to gain more and more information about where he might be."

US forces, also acting on information from an informant, killed Saddam's two sons during a raid on Tuesday in Mosul.