US troops swoop on terror leader

US troops have arrested at least 20 insurgents in a raid in northern Iraq, but they failed to capture their main target – Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former Saddam deputy and the King of Clubs in the most wanted list.

Iraqi police said a senior former member of Saddam’s elite Republican Guard was among those captured in Hawija, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

A member of Iraq’s Governing Council said al-Douri – the most wanted man in Iraq after the deposed dictator – was the target of the raid.

But US army spokesman Sergeant Robert Cargie said “We get our information from the 173rd (Airborne Brigade) and the 173rd is saying they don’t have him.”

The Americans have pointed to al-Douri as a co-ordinator of the insurgency against US forces, and last week offered a reward of more than €8m for information leading to his arrest.

Also in the north, insurgents kept up attacks against American-led forces, with a US soldier killed in a roadside explosion in Samarra, the scene of deadly weekend battles between Americans and Iraqis.

Meanwhile, relatives of US troops visiting Iraq pressed their agenda to meet with leaders of the coalition authority, hoping to voice their opposition to the US-led occupation.

One mother held back tears while looking at US soldiers guarding the entrance of the Habbaniyah military base in Baghdad.

“They are so young. This is not for them. … They look just like my boy,” said Annabelle Valencia, whose daughter, 24, and son, 22, are both based in Iraq.

Elsewhere in the capital, workers using a crane started dismantling the 13-foot-tall busts of Saddam from his former Republican Palace, now the headquarters of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

It was unclear how long the work would take.

Lt Col William MacDonald, spokesman for the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said the raids in Hawija were aimed at capturing former regime members financing guerrilla attacks in the region.

Iraqi police said US troops had captured more than 100 people. Six Iraqis were wounded in the raid, but it was not immediately clear if they were all insurgents.

The US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade detained 20 suspected insurgents, but not al-Douri. Earlier, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council had said al-Douri had been caught.