US forces seized four relatives of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most wanted man in Iraq and a suspected mastermind behind attacks on US troops, following a pre-dawn raid in central Iraq today.
US military police swooped on two homes in the town of Samarra, about 100 km north of Baghdad and a hotbed of anti-American insurgency, and detained four nephews of the former Saddam Hussein henchman.
Ibrahim is number six on the US military's 55-most-wanted list and carries a $10 million bounty on his head. Following Saddam's capture in December, he is the most wanted man in Iraq.
The US military thinks two of the detained men may have been helping find safehouses for Ibrahim, but it would give no further details on the suspects.
US officials believe Ibrahim is one of the key coordinators behind the eight-month anti-American insurgency, which has killed more than 200 US troops.
Lieutenant Colonel David Poirier, commander of 720th Military Police Battalion based in Fort Hood, Texas, said the relatives were Ibrahim's "enablers" and had good information on his whereabouts.
"We think that brought us one step closer to finding him," Poirier told reporters.
Ibrahim's wife and daughter were detained in late November and one of his houses near Tikrit was destroyed in a US bombing campaign.
A week later US forces carried out a raid which they said may have just missed snaring the man himself.
"One of these days, his head will rise above water and we will be able to capture him as well," Poirier said.
Ibrahim held a number of top positions in Saddam's government, including deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces and former vice president on the powerful Revolutionary Command Council.
He was a key architect of the Baath Party's 1968 coup and was a powerful political figure in the ensuing decades.