SAMARRA, Jan 14: Four nephews of Saddam Hussein's former number two, Izzat Ibrahim al Duri, were captured in a pre-dawn raid on the Iraqi town of Samarra on Wednesday, the US military said.

Acting on a tipoff, US military police raided two homes in Samarra, 125kms north of Baghdad, and arrested four of Mr Duri's nephews, US officials said. "The two main targets (of the raid) we think know the whereabouts of Al Duri and are enablers for his movements," said Lt Col David Poirier, commander of the battalion that led the raid.

Mr Duri has a 10-million-dollar bounty on his head for allegedly masterminding attacks on US troops. He said 40 members of his unit, backed by infantry soldiers in three tanks, raided a home in which they found three men, one of whom led them to the second house, where they arrested the fourth man.-AFP