Saddam nephew killed in blast

An explosive device being transported in a car exploded near a US Army patrol, killing two Iraqis in the vehicle including a relative of Saddam Hussein, the military said today. There were no U.S. casualties.

The blast in a white Mercedes car happened late on Saturday on a street in the former dictator’s home town of Tikrit, said Lt Col. Steve Russell, commander of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division.

Russell said the car exploded some 150 yards from his patrol, which had pulled to a halt at a shop in downtown Tikrit just minutes earlier to talk to its owner.

“It was not a suicide bombing. It was a failed attempt to attack coalition forces and they (the car’s occupants) killed themselves,” Russell said.

US soldiers have been searching for the same vehicle, which is believed to have been involved in several other bombings, including a December 16 explosion in Tikrit that wounded three American soldiers.

Russell said one of the two men killed was a nephew of one of Saddam’s brothers, and was carrying a homemade bomb comprised of artillery shells and plastic explosives in his lap that detonated prematurely, killing him instantly and fatally wounding the driver. He would not further identify the bomber.

A third occupant of the car was taken to a Tikrit hospital in a serious condition and will be questioned by U.S. forces later, Russell said.

Russell believed the men in the car had been tipped off to the presence of US soldiers patrolling in Tikrit, and in their haste to attack them had detonated the radio-controlled bomb prematurely.

In another incident, an explosive device detonated on Saturday afternoon inside a Tikrit shop, blowing off the leg of the store’s owner and damaging his premises, Russell said. The injured man was apparently handling the device or preparing it for use when it exploded.

Tikrit, about 180 kilometres (120 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, is at the centre of the so-called Sunni triangle, a pro-Saddam area that has seen the bulk of the insurgent attacks against U.S. troops.