U.S. Troops Raid Homes, Detain Two Suspected Hussein Loyalists

U.S. soldiers stormed three houses near Saddam Hussein’s hometown on Saturday and detained four people, including two suspected of having links to the ousted leader’s special security force, the U.S. military said.

Soldiers backed by Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles burst into the homes, battering down the doors of two of them.

Troops seized AK-47 rifles and ammunition, a range-finder and flare pistols, along with electrical wiring, which the soldiers said could be used in bomb-making. Troops also found photographs of Hussein, his sons Uday and Qusai -- killed in a U.S. raid in July -- and other regime members.

Lt. Col. Steve Russell of the Tikrit-based 4th Infantry Division, who led the raid, said those detained were suspected of involvement in attacks on U.S. forces.

“We’re interested in the information they can give us about operations in this area,” Russell said.

One detainee in particular, a man in his 50s, was “expected to be of great intelligence value,” Russell said. “We cast a wide net -- sometimes we get a dolphin, sometimes we get a shark.”

In other actions Saturday, U.S. troops arrested seven suspected insurgents and seized about 50 Kalashnikov rifles in raids near Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad.

In northern Iraq, it took firefighters hours to extinguish a blaze along an oil pipeline north of Kirkuk. An employee of the North Oil Co. said the fire was the result of sabotage.