U.S. troops in Iraq raided houses and shops across Tikrit late on Thursday in an operation aimed at weeding out remaining resistance in the home town of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Some 300 soldiers from the army's 4th Infantry Division burst into targeted properties across the town and detained 13 people suspected of involvement in attacks on forces occupying Iraq, their commanding officer said.

A U.S Army soldier takes his position during a night raid, in Tikrit, Iraq, early Friday, Jan. 9, 2004. U.S. forces arrested 13 Iraqis wanted in connection with planning funding and conducting attacks on coalition forces.  [AP]

"It was a good night," U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Steven Russell told reporters after the raids, which lasted for most of the hours of curfew in town between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. "Tikrit will be a safer place tomorrow as a result."

The operation, targeting 20 houses and three shops, failed to catch five of the people included on a list of 18 suspects the army drew up on the basis of intelligence from Iraqi sources.

Using tank-like Bradley vehicles to seal off roads, and support from military aircraft, troops barged into houses to search for suspects and for weapons and other incriminating material.

Aside from a few AK 47 assault rifles, common in Iraq and not banned even under the U.S.-led occupation, the soldiers found no arms caches.

They did discover in one property several wireless doorbell sets, items often used to detonate home-made bombs which Iraqi insurgents have used to lethal effect against military vehicles.

In another house, soldiers discovered a stack of fake Iraqi police identity cards and computer equipment which had apparently been used to make them.

Suspects were hauled out of their houses, blindfolded and had their hands cuffed behind their backs with plastic bindings.

Most sat shivering in the chilly damp air while soldiers examined their identity papers.

One suspect managed to break free of his handcuffs and was quickly subdued by two infantrymen who pushed his head down into the pavement. They pulled from his hand a spiked knuckle duster, seen by reporters, which he had apparently taken from his pocket.

Russell, whose battalion is due soon to pull out of Iraq along with the rest of the division which controls a large chunk of northern Iraq, said earlier the raids were a "scrubbing" exercise for Tikrit.

"We're trying to get out the last remaining resistance in the city," he said, while conceding sporadic gun and bomb attacks against U.S. forced in the area were likely to continue.

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