TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - American soldiers overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam Hussein's side Tuesday and said they obtained documents and information that could help them close in on the former dictator.
An audiotape attributed to the deposed Iraqi leader declared his sons martyrs.
Also Tuesday, Iraq's Governing Council, the 25-member body set up by the U.S.-led coalition to run Iraq as an interim administration, elected a nine-member presidency. The council's statement Tuesday in Baghdad gave no details on how the presidency would function.
In the audiotape aired on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite station, a voice that resembled Saddam's lauded his sons, Odai and Qusai, who were killed July 22 in a firefight with U.S. soldiers in the northern city of Mosul.
"Even if Saddam Hussein had 100 children other than Odai and Qusai, Saddam Hussein would offer their lives in the same way," the voice said. "Thank God for what he destined for us, and honored us with their martyrdom for his sake."
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Some Iraqis had doubted the bodies were those of Saddam's sons, accusing the United States of staging the shootout to demoralize Saddam's supporters. The United States released photographs of the sons and let journalists see their bodies in an attempt to convince Iraqis they were really dead.
The raid in Tikrit captured Adnan Abdullah Abid al-Musslit, who as "one of Saddam's lifelong bodyguards" was believed to have detailed knowledge of the former president's hiding places, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell. He said documents taken from the home and information obtained from the men would be useful in the hunt for Saddam.
"Every photo and every document connects the dots," said Russell, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 22nd Infantry Regiment.
The stocky bodyguard struggled to break free as soldiers arrested him, and they had to wrestle him to the ground and drag him down the stairs, Russell said.
"Were we surprised? He's a bodyguard. That's why we went in with our steely knives and oily guns," Russell said. "If everything else had failed and we just got that one guy, we would be happy."
But the series of pre-dawn raids in the heart of the Saddam's hometown nabbed 12 people, including Daher Ziana, the former head of security in Tikrit, and Rafa Idham Ibrahim al-Hassan, a leader of the Saddam Fedayeen militia.
The raids began at 4 a.m. when soldiers fired three shotgun blasts into the locks of the house where bodyguard al-Musslit was living with his family.
Moments later, an Associated Press reporter watched as soldiers pulled al-Musslit from the house, bleeding and barefoot. Soldiers stripped him to his underwear, searching for weapons, and dragged him into an Army Humvee.
A medic examined the right side of his forehead, where blood seeped through the wide tan cloth that was wrapped over his eyes as a blindfold.
Al-Musslit had retired from his job as one of Saddam's most trusted bodyguards, but the former Iraqi leader called him back into service before the war started, Russell said, citing intelligence gathered from Tikrit residents.
About a block away, soldiers stormed a house where Ziana was living, emerging from one the house's ornate arched entrances with four men with their hands tied behind their back. One of the men was identified as Ziana, Saddam's security chief in Tikrit.
Soldiers cut white sheets from the home into strips to make blindfolds for the men, who sat under guard in the front yard.
Six women, some clutching the hands of small children, wailed as soldiers threw photographs and documents into the driveway. A large portrait of Saddam lay alongside a picture of Ziana in uniform. One album featured a photo of women posing with Kalashnikov rifles.
Among the documents was something called a "Saddam Privilege Card," Russell said.
Nearby, soldiers pulled al-Hassan from another house, Russell said. Al-Hassan was believed to be a Brigadier General and a leader of the Fedayeen militia, which is suspected in the mounting attacks on U.S. troops.
The men were taken to an Army detention facility in Tikrit where they will be interrogated, Russell said.
The 22nd Infantry said it came within 24 hours of catching Saddam's new security chief _ and possibly the dictator himself _ at a farm in eastern Tikrit on Sunday. It also assisted Task Force 20, the special operations force hunting Saddam, in a Thursday raid that netted up to 10 of the dictator's suspected bodyguards in al-Uja, the Tikrit suburb where Saddam was born.
It began hunting al-Musslit after a raid on a farm belonging to Saddam's cousin Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid al-Tikriti _ 11th on the U.S. list of Iraq's 55 most-wanted _ where they found several photos of al-Musslit at Saddam's side, Russell said.
Bradley fighting vehicles were attacked late last week around the corner from the house where al-Musslit was staying. Russell and his driver, Spc. Cody Hoefer, became locked in a close-quarter shootout with al-Musslit's nephew and three other men, Russell said. The four Iraqis were killed in the fight.
In the following days, soldiers stepped up surveillance on the area and gathered the information that led to the raids.
On Monday, soldiers in Tikrit found a huge stash of anti-tank mines and gunpowder they said was enough for a month of attacks on U.S. forces.
"Forty mines could have caused a lot of problems for U.S. forces here in Tikrit," said Maj. Bryan Luke, 37, of Mobile, Ala.
Between Tikrit and Baghdad, guerrillas floated a bomb on a palm log down the Diala River, a Tigris tributary, and detonated it under an old bridge linking Tikrit to the city of Baqouba.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, the Governing Council elected a nine-member presidency.
The U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, had said when the council was announced on July 13 that its first order of business would be to elect a president, but members have been unable to agree on a single leader.
The Governing Council has the right to appoint Cabinet ministers and formulate economic policies and is charged with producing a process to write a new constitution that would pave the way for a general election.
Like the larger Governing Council, the presidency has a slight Shiite Muslim majority, with two Sunni Muslims and two Kurdish leaders represented.
The members of the presidency are: Ahmad Chalabi, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, Jalal Talabani, Massoud Barzani, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iyad Allawi, Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum and Adnan Pachachi.