US soldiers have captured one of Saddam Hussein's former bodyguards and an Iraqi general who was a senior Ba'ath Party official.
They were detained after a series of raids on the outskirts of Tikrit, the fallen dictator's home town.
A total of 14 men were detained in the three hour operation.
All the men were members of the same family, which served as a pillar of support for Saddam's regime, said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell.
"We were targeting a specific family - one of the four controlling families of the former regime," Russell said.
"They were trying to support the remnants of the former regime by organising attacks, through funding and by trying to hide former regime members," Russell added.
During his reign, Saddam depended on four families for support and rewarded them financially by giving them cash, prestige and land seized from other people, Russell said.
AP