update from the cutting edge of hussein hunters....

[J.J.]

All-
This was Rueters top world news story this
morning...you might recognize the Major being quoted
in the story. Go get 'em Joss!
--Tim

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../ts_nm/iraq_dc

Top Stories - Reuters

U.S. Says It's Closing in on Saddam After Raids
Tue Jul 29, 7:23 AM ET

By Alastair Macdonald

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces hunting Saddam
Hussein (news - web sites) in Iraq (news - web sites)
have captured three key figures loyal to the deposed
dictator, including a top bodyguard, and are closing
in on Saddam himself, the U.S. army said Tuesday.

"Members of the 4th Infantry Division detained four
individuals in Tikrit. Three of those individuals are
believed to be former regime loyalists," a U.S.
spokesman said.

"They are being questioned as we speak."

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said
U.S. forces nearly captured Saddam in raids Monday
near his home town of Tikrit, north of the capital
Baghdad.

"I think most people feel that the noose is tightening
pretty regularly around the neck of Saddam Hussein,
even today there were three raids and we believe we
were just hours behind Saddam Hussein," he said on
CNN.

Major Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry in Tikrit
told Reuters that one of the captured Saddam loyalists
put up a brief struggle, and two gunshots were heard
as the raid began, but there were no U.S. casualties.

Television pictures filmed through a night vision lens
showed a man being escorted from a building by
American soldiers, blood seeping through a blindfold.

Aberle said Saddam was sure to be captured.

"When, I don't know, because he's a master of hiding,"
she said. "But when people are on the run they get
tired and start making mistakes."

Officers say that after Saddam's feared sons Uday and
Qusay were killed last week -- and Washington promised
to pay the man who betrayed them a $30 million reward
-- many more Iraqis were coming forward with
information on Saddam himself.

Even in Tikrit, Aberle said, locals were helping
troops.

"Even though this is his home town, the number of
Iraqis, locals who actually benefited, is very small,"
she said. "So we actually have had quite a lot of
Iraqis coming forward."

The United States is offering $25 million for
information leading to the arrest or proof of death of
Saddam.

BAGHDAD RAID

Sunday, soldiers from Task Force 20, the secretive
special team set up to hunt Saddam, staged a bloody
raid on a villa in an upscale neighborhood of Baghdad.
They found no trace of Saddam or his top lieutenants,
but five Iraqis were killed when troops opened fire on
cars driving near the house.

Furious locals accused soldiers of firing
indiscriminately on innocent civilians. Army spokesmen
declined comment, saying they were not authorized to
discuss Task Force 20 operations.

Washington hopes that finding Saddam would help end a
guerrilla campaign that has killed 50 U.S. troops
since President Bush (news - web sites) declared major
combat over on May 1.

The U.S. military blames die-hard Saddam loyalists for
the violence, and some officers had said they hoped
the killing of Uday and Qusay in a fierce onslaught a
week ago in the northern city of Mosul would
demoralize anti-American guerrillas.

But 11 U.S. soldiers have been killed in attacks since
Saddam's sons died in a barrage of machinegun fire,
grenades, rockets and anti-tank missiles as they
mounted a last stand with AK-47 assault rifles in a
villa in the city.

In the most recent fatal attack, a U.S. soldier was
killed in broad daylight in Baghdad Monday when a bomb
or grenade was dropped from a bridge onto his vehicle.
Three others were wounded, one seriously.

Anxious to muster as much international support as
possible for its forces in Iraq, costing about $1
billion a week, Washington named 30 governments that
have agreed to help by contributing to military or
police operations.

Some of the countries did not have the means to pay
for their own contributions so they were talking to
the United States about financial assistance, State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

The list of governments willing to contribute included
Britain, Spain and others which supported the U.S.
invasion of Iraq in March and none of the major
opponents of the war such as France, Germany and
Russia.

[Cloudbringer]

Hey JJ, That's pretty wild to see a relative in print!
Don't know what happened to the closed version over at GD, I moved it here but kept a closed version over there which pointed to this one in Current Events!

Anyway, it's here for everyone to see and discuss!