Crackdown in Hussein’s Town

American soldiers swept into Al Auja, the small, walled town where Saddam Hussein was born, in tanks and Humvees before dawn Friday and ordered all residents over 18 to register for identity cards if they want freedom of movement in the area, the Army’s 4th Infantry Division spokespeople said.

Hussein’s village near Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where the former president still has a loyal following among Iraq’s minority Sunni Muslims. Hussein is believed by many intelligence sources to be in the area, and some reports have said increasing evidence suggests he is instrumental in planning attacks on U.S. forces.

In Baghdad, security was tight, with increased U.S. patrols, following the appearance of leaflets circulating in the capital that spoke of a “day of resistance” today with escalated attacks.

Far to the north, a roadside bomb exploded as a convoy of U.S. vehicles passed early today in the city of Mosul, killing three Americans and wounding two others, Iraqi police told Reuters.

The U.S. military did not immediately confirm the attack, and it was not clear whether the victims were soldiers or civilians working for the U.S.-led administration.

Near Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed Friday in a roadside bomb attack. In nearby Fallouja, the mayor’s office was set ablaze by Iraqis after a local man’s shooting death. And in Baghdad, two soldiers from the 1st Armored Division were wounded and two civilians reportedly were killed in an exchange of small-arms fire in the neighborhood of Abu Ghraib.

Meanwhile, South Korean officials announced that one of their diplomats in Baghdad was briefly abducted Monday. The Foreign Ministry in Seoul told reporters that the diplomat was seized at gunpoint by two men as he waited for a taxi in front of the South Korean Embassy. He was released unharmed five minutes later, but his abductors warned him that South Koreans should leave Iraq immediately.

Seoul sent a fact-finding team to Baghdad on Friday to assess security.

Following the approval last month of a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing a multinational force in Iraq, South Korea became one of the first U.S. allies to announce it would send troops. The deployment is supposed to involve several thousand soldiers who probably would be sent to Mosul to relieve the 101st Airborne Division. About 675 South Koreans already are serving in Iraq as noncombatant medics and engineers.

Reports of the abduction came as foreign missions continued to reduce their staffs following Monday’s attack by suicide bombers on the Baghdad headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross and three police stations.

Manila announced it was withdrawing all but two of its diplomatic staff members, and the United Nations and the Red Cross have said they are pulling out expatriate workers.

Here in the capital, the U.S. Consular Office issued a warning about “rumors” of new violence and said Americans should be particularly cautious. “U.S. citizens are encouraged to continue to maintain a high level of vigilance and continue to take appropriate steps to increase their security,” the consular statement said.

The Australian government warned Friday that it had received “credible reports of imminent terrorist threats” to the area around the Hamra Hotel in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood in the next two weeks. The hotel is home to many foreigners, including journalists.

In the operation in Hussein’s hometown, there was no resistance and no one was detained. Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman, said the operation was not part of a stepped-up effort to track down Hussein.

“This is obviously Saddam’s town,” she said by telephone, “but we’re more concerned that we don’t have outside elements coming into the town, as has happened in other towns. They attack the coalition and then they leave, and the town pays the consequences.”

Soldiers strung concertina wire around the perimeter of the village, 10 miles southeast of Tikrit, and set up checkpoints. The area around Tikrit has seen a recent upsurge of attacks against U.S. forces.

A division spokesman also said its soldiers, acting on information from an Iraqi informant, raided a house near Samarra, about 70 miles northwest of Baghdad, on Friday and detained six men responsible for a roadside explosion that killed Command Sgt. Maj. James D. Blankenbecler on Oct. 1. They also uncovered a nearby weapons and ammunition cache.

Times staff writer Barbara Demick in Seoul contributed to this report.