US misses Saddam security chief
Meanwhile, a US Marine was killed in a grenade attack south of Baghdad.
Troops stormed three farms in Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown, in simultaneous pre-dawn raids after receiving a tip that Saddam’s new security chief was staying at one of the farm houses, said Lt Col Steve Russell, who led the operation by the of the 4th Infantry.
“We missed him by 24 hours,” Lt Col Russell said, adding that residents told soldiers that the man they sought had been at one of the farm houses.
The military said one US soldier attached to the marines was killed and one was wounded in the grenade attack just south of Baghdad.
The death was the first of the week after one of the bloodiest seven-day periods in the guerrilla war against American forces since President George W Bush declared major combat in Iraq was over on May 1.
The military said it had no further information on the 2:35am attack.
The death brought to 48 the number of Americans killed in action in Iraq since May 1. So far 163 US soldiers have died in the war, 16 more than the number of those killed in the 1991 Gulf War.
There had been hope the killings Tuesday of Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, Numbers 2 and 3 on the US most-wanted list, might demoralise the resistance. Instead, their deaths appear to have inspired a wave of revenge attacks.
In Tikrit on Thursday, US troops of the 4th Infantry Division captured a group of men believed to include five to 10 of Saddam’s bodyguards. After that, soldiers learned that Saddam's new security chief and possibly the dictator himself were staying on one of the farms, Lt Col Russell said.
The army would not name the man they had targeted, but said he was believed to have taken over Saddam’s security after the June 17 arrest of Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam’s cousin and presidential secretary.
Mahmud, who was Number 4 on Washington’s list of most-wanted Iraqis, controlled all access to the deposed Iraqi leader.
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