Soldiers capture bodyguard, Iraqi general in raid

TIKRIT, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers on Tuesday captured one of Saddam Hussein's former bodyguards and an Iraqi general who was a senior Baath Party official, the U.S. military said.

The 14 suspects arrested in a sweep outside Saddam's hometown of Tikrit belonged to a single family that had been a key backer of the deposed dictator's regime -- and was believed to be supporting guerrilla resistance to U.S. occupying forces.

In the latest violence against American troops, a soldier was killed Tuesday when roadside bombs blasted a U.S. convoy west of the capital, Baghdad.

'A specific family'

The series of raids lasted three hours, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, commander of the 22nd Infantry Regiment's 1st Battalion. He declined to identify the detainees or specify the location of the raid other than as a southern Tikrit suburb.

"We were targeting a specific family -- one of the four controlling families of the former regime," Russell said.

"They were trying to support the remnants of the former regime by organizing attacks, through funding and by trying to hide former regime members."

About 250 soldiers surrounded and searched 20 homes, carrying away a safe, photographs and computers that may be of intelligence value, Russell said.

The Army had been watching the family for weeks, because of intelligence pointing to their involvement in recent attacks on soldiers in Tikrit. They staged the sweep Tuesday when they thought they could catch the maximum number of people, he said.

During his reign, Saddam relied on four families for support and rewarded them with cash, prestige and land seized from other people, Russell said.

Tikrit has been a center of the hunt for Saddam, who the military believes is on the run, moving every three to four hours.

The U.S. soldier killed Tuesday morning was riding in a Humvee in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. A military spokesman said his convoy was hit by three roadside bombs wired to explode one after another. Two soldiers were wounded.

Another soldier died in his sleep at a U.S. base in Ramadi, his body discovered Tuesday morning.

In Mosul, a main city in northern Iraq, the military reported a soldier died when his Humvee collided with a taxi.

Elsewhere, guerrillas wounded three American soldiers in northern Iraq on Monday.

Separately, a raid Monday in Ain Lalin, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, had sought a former member of Saddam's regime on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mark Young said. He said 70 suspects were taken into custody -- but not the target of the raid.

North of Baghdad, flames shot 200 feet into the air from a burst oil pipeline Tuesday, and U.S. forces fired warning shots to keep people from the scene.

Two M-1 Abrams tanks and three soldiers crouched in firing positions ordered an Iraqi fire truck to stay back.

"They were very hostile," said fire department Lt. Hasannein Mohammed.

The blaze near Taji, a region of date groves, military compounds and chemical plants, was burning about three miles north of a big refinery. It sent a huge black cloud drifting over the capital for several hours.

Military spokeswoman Nicole Thompson had no further details.

It could not immediately be determined if the fire was the work of saboteurs, but many pipelines throughout the oil-rich nation have been hit by guerrillas seeking to destabilize U.S. efforts to pacify Iraq.

On Monday, Iraq's interim government announced plans to reopen Basra airport by the end of the month and has already authorized planned flights by at least six foreign carriers.

Commercial flights to and from Iraq have been suspended since the 1991 Gulf War. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, current president of the U.S.-picked Governing Council, said Monday the resumption of flights would be "a big step forward to opening Iraq to the world."

During the 12 years of United Nations sanctions, only Royal Jordanian had been flying to Baghdad with U.N. approval.

U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer had said he hoped to get Baghdad and Basra airports reopened by mid-September, and predicted last week that Basra would be secured and operational before Baghdad.

The Baghdad International Airport has seen at least three failed surface-to-air missile attacks on military flights since U.S. forces took control of the capital April 9.