WASHINGTON, July 28: US officials told reporters on Monday that their troops are tightening the noose around former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and they hope to catch him soon.

“Saddam and his men are running out of places to hide. We are tightening the noose around them,” said a US Central Command spokesman Colonel James Hickey.

Centcom officials said US troops had conducted three separate raids in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit since Sunday. They are looking for a man who has only been identified as Saddam’s new security chief. US officials say they have “solid reasons” to believe that this man knows Saddam’s whereabouts.

He is number 4 on America’s most-wanted list and replaced the previous security chief, Saddam loyalist Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, who was arrested on June 17.

Al-Tikriti was the only other member of Saddam’s inner circle aside from Qusay Hussein who may have had knowledge of Saddam’s location. Qusay was killed on July 22 along with his brother Uday in a shootout with American forces.

Intelligence on the security chief’s location originated with a raid conducted in Tikrit on Thursday that resulted in the arrest of several suspects believed to be Saddam Hussein’s bodyguards.

US forces are focusing on an area known as the Sunni-triangle, which is a stronghold of the Baath Party. About 80 per cent of the attacks against US forces take place in this region.