US buries sons, digs deep for dad

US officials, anxious to avoid the grave site of the brothers becoming a shrine, said they had delayed the burial while they consulted prominent Iraqis on what should be done with the corpses.

Witnesses said at least two representatives from Saddam’s tribe were present when the bodies were buried. Some locals in Tikrit said they regarded the dead brothers as marytrs. ‘‘They are the heroes of Iraq,’’ one said.

Meanwhile, there has been no let-up in attacks. A US Army spokesman said one soldier was killed and three wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a 4th Infantry Division convoy in northern Iraq late on Friday. The ambush brought to 53 the number of US soldiers killed in hostile action since the US declared major combat over on May 1.

US troops have mounted several raids in Tikrit over the past week, searching for Saddam and his top lieutenants. Officers say the net is closing on the fugitive leader. In the latest raid on Friday night, US soldiers swooped on a house in Tikrit and seized a man suspected of organising guerrilla attacks.

‘‘The individual we believe is involved in organising attacks and also providing security for regime members,’’ Lt Colonel Steve Russell told reporters.

On Friday afternoon, two other Saddam loyalists were detained near Tikrit, officers said. They were the latest of ‘‘scores’’ of such figures, some quite senior, detained in raids this week.

Two of Saddam Hussein’s daughters sent an emotional message to their father, telling him they love him dearly and pray for God to protect him in his ordeal. ‘‘I want to tell him that I miss him greatly and may God help him in his ordeal,’’ Saddam’s eldest daughter Raghd told Al Arabiya television. Her sister Rana told CNN: ‘‘Every moment I think about him and I hope that God will protect him.”

Raghd accused close aides of her father of betraying him. ‘‘This is an act of treason,’’ she said. ‘‘It was clear, unfortunately the people who he had absolutely trusted,…the main betrayal was by them.”