Net tightens on Saddam after aide seized

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The capture of Saddam Hussein's closest aide tightened the net on the missing Iraqi leader Thursday as a U.S. medic was killed and two were wounded when their ambulance was ambushed south of Baghdad.

The U.S. military said a rocket-propelled grenade had hit an ambulance of the 804th Medical Brigade as it was transporting a patient injured in an unrelated incident.

The U.S. drive to track down Saddam, who disappeared after Baghdad fell on April 9, may have moved into a new gear now that his secretary, national security adviser and senior bodyguard, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, is in American hands.

Tikriti, captured Monday, was the Ace of Diamonds on a pack of cards issued to U.S. troops hunting 55 most wanted Iraqis, and was the highest-ranking fugitive netted to date. Only Saddam and his sons, Uday and Qusay, outrank him on the list.

Tikriti was "regarded by some as the real number two figure in the Iraqi leadership," a British government report published before the war said. "He controls all access to Saddam -- possibly with the exception of Qusay and Uday Hussein -- and has the ability to override government decisions."

Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Britain's Warwick University, said Tikriti might have been betrayed by another senior official, which would indicate that "the rolling-up of the final remnants" of Saddam's apparatus was under way.

"But if they bought him -- if he sold himself for a retirement, immunity and a house in California -- then this is the end of the old regime," he said. Tikriti would be able to lead U.S. forces to Saddam or weapons of mass destruction.

The United States and Britain have failed to find either since they invaded Iraq on March 20.

U.S. forces have come under frequent attack. With the ambulance ambush, they have lost three dead in as many days in and around Baghdad, where tension notched up after troops shot dead two former Iraqi soldiers during a protest Wednesday.

Cursing America, scores of mourners fired rifles in the air at the funeral of one of them, Tareq Mohammed, in defiance of a U.S. ban on the carrying of weapons.

"America is the enemy of Allah," several hundred people chanted after mosque prayers for the former air force noncommissioned officer. U.S. troops kept out of the area.

"They deprived us of our jobs and have not offered us new ones," said one mourner, Khazaal Qatie, of the U.S. move to disband Saddam's armed forces, security services and two ministries, throwing 400,000 people out of work.

A U.S. military spokesman said soldiers would not have opened fire if Wednesday's protest had remained peaceful.

"Every death is regrettable. We make every effort that's possible to make sure that it doesn't happen. But we are in a combat zone and we prepare accordingly," he said.

Another spokesman said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority had been reviewing the policy of giving sacked soldiers a one-time payment of just $100.

"We expect that it will actually be a much more generous settlement than that," he said.

Asked about the killing of the two protesters, a U.N. spokeswoman said: "We denounce the excessive use of force."

Iraq's first opinion poll confirmed that Baghdadis are fed up with U.S. troops, but don't want them to leave just yet.

Published Thursday, it said around 73 percent felt the Americans had not brought security to the capital, but only 17 percent said they should leave immediately. Around 51 percent wanted them to stay until a permanent government can be elected.

The survey, conducted by the independent Iraqi Institute of Strategic Studies, polled 1,100 people between June 8 and 10.

Iraq's main oil pipeline to Turkey was up and running again after a fire and explosions last week, a senior official said.

They deprived us of our jobs and have not offered us new ones

A fact that is not only overlooked but generally unknown is that Saddam's government, like the government of the Nazis, was socialist. The government employed everyone and controlled everything.

These people don't know how to take care of themselves, and create their own jobs.

"...Saddam's government, like the government of the Nazis, was socialist.."

Precisely. And precisely why the Left fiercely opposed military action.

How stupid is the writer, Alistair Lyon, she calls this clown Tikriti at least 3 times in the article, and no proof reader picks this up!

Tikriti is the town he comes from, not his last name.

Reuters is one step behind the NYT, no credibility, dumber than dogsh*t writers.

Way back in the old days when I was in college I remember journalism majors were the only people on the face of the earth that kept teachers from being the dumbest people on the face of the earth with a college degree.

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