U.S. arrests wife and daughter of Saddam deputy

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- American troops hunting for a top Saddam Hussein deputy suspected of masterminding anti-U.S. attacks arrested his wife and daughter in an apparent attempt to pressure his surrender.

Also on Wednesday, a major pipeline from northern Iraqi oilfields was ablaze.

Hours after rockets shook the center of Baghdad, setting off warning sirens in the U.S. headquarters compound, Britain's visiting foreign secretary said Iraq will be a safer place once the U.S.- and British-led coalition hands over power to an Iraqi government.

Meanwhile, two top Shiite Muslim leaders said they want changes in the U.S. plan to handover power to Iraqis.

They want elections sooner than the plan's timetable for elections by March 15, 2005. The plan calls for creation of an interim administration by June 30.

Troops of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division in Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad, arrested the wife and daughter of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a top Saddam associate, division spokesman Lt. Col. William MacDonald said Wednesday.

Under Saddam, al-Douri was vice chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, and shortly before the war began March 20, Saddam placed him in charge of defenses in northern Iraq.

American forces have frequently arrested relatives of fugitives to interrogate them on their family member's whereabouts and as a way of putting pressure on the wanted men to surrender.

Believed linked to attacks

U.S. officials have said they believe al-Douri has planned some of the attacks against U.S. forces and last week offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. Al-Douri is No. 6 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

MacDonald said a man was also taken into custody in the raid Tuesday.

North of Baghdad, witnesses near the village of Sharqat said sheets of flame and thick black smoke were shooting from the damaged pipeline, only 30 miles from Iraq's largest oil refinery.

There was no immediate explanation for the cause of the blaze, but guerrillas have repeatedly attacked pipelines in the general area. The attacks have complicated efforts to revive Iraq's giant petroleum industry, the key to its economic recovery.

Iraq has the second-largest proven petroleum reserves in OPEC.

But many companies are holding back until they see an improvement in security against attacks by militants opposed to American troops and the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, on a two-day visit to Iraq, said a transition to Iraqi rule will improve security. More than five dozen U.S. troops have been killed by hostile fire in November, more than any other month since the official end of major combat in Iraq on May 1.

"The more that we can give all Iraqis a stake in their future and a stable political architecture in which to work, the more I believe more Iraqis will become committed to that future and fewer will think that terror and quiescence in terror is the way forward," Straw said at a news conference.

Straw met with members of the coalition-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to discuss the U.S. power-transfer plan.

Three large explosions shook downtown Baghdad on Tuesday evening, triggering a warning siren in the "Green Zone" housing the U.S. headquarters. Capt. David Gercken, a spokesman for the U.S. 1st Armored Division, said rockets hit a bus station, a propane station and an apartment building, wounding two Iraqis, near -- but not in -- the "Green Zone."

Since operations began in Iraq, 297 U.S. service members have died in hostile action, including 183 since May 1 when President Bush declared an end to major fighting.

The U.S. command has in recent weeks pursued insurgents more aggressively in an attempt to stop them before they strike.

In one such operation, troops from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment encircled three towns along the Syrian border and detained 300 residents in a search for weapons and fighters, according to a U.S. News and World Report correspondent who returned from the area Tuesday.

The troops established a cordon Thursday around the towns of Husaybah, Karabilah and Sadah, total population 120,000, and haven't let anyone in or out, said the reporter, Bay Fang.

Meanwhile, officials said the U.S. military has paid more than $1.66 million in damages to Iraqi civilians for personal injury, damage and wrongful deaths.

Money has been paid out in more than 4,700 of the 10,000 claims submitted by Iraqis. So far, 3,800 claims have been rejected and the rest are still being considered.

--------

Associated Press correspondent Jim Gomez in Tikrit contributed to this story.