Three top members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, including one of his most trusted aides and the official in charge of developing weapons, were in custody Friday, the U.S. military said. Mizban Khadr Hadi, appointed commander of one of four military regions Saddam established on the eve of the war, was captured Thursday in Baghdad, the U.S. officials announced. Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish, director of the Office of Military Industrialization and a deputy prime minister in charge of arms procurement, also was in custody, as was Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, a Kurd who served as one of two vice presidents in a largely ceremonial role, Central Command in Doha said. The brief statement did not give details of where Huweish and Marouf were detained, where they were being held or whether they surrendered or were seized. Hadi, a member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council and a top Baath Party leader, was No. 41 on the U.S. coalition's list of the 55 most-wanted figures. He had been a minister without portfolio since June 1982 and before that was governor of Najaf. He was decorated by Saddam for his services during the 1991 Gulf War and the month-long Shiite rebellion that followed Iraq's defeat. In May 2001, he was put in charge of the party's Farmers' Central Office. Huweish was listed as No. 16 on the coalition's list of the 55 most-wanted figures from Saddam's regime. He was a deputy prime minister and his ministry served as Iraq's chief weapons acquisition agency. Marouf was the only Kurd in the Baath hierarchy. He was appointed as one of Iraq's two vice presidents in 1975, but the position was largely a gesture to the Kurdish minority and he had little real power. **US Troops Raid Tikrit*** U.S. soldiers raided a dozen buildings in Saddam Hussein hometown early Friday, taking about 20 people into custody, including a suspected local Baath Party leader. One Iraqi was killed when he tried to take a rifle away from an American soldier, according to US reports. The raid, the second in Tikrit in as many days, began shortly after midnight when six Bradley fighting vehicles sealed off a neighborhood of houses and apartment blocks. Soldiers broke down compound gates and doors with hand-held battering rams, forced their way inside and emerged with about 20 men, who were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. U.S. officers said, however, that one of the prisoners was a locally important official of Saddam's Baath party but refused to release his name for security reasons. Troops found several weapons and about 3,000 US dollars hidden in various houses, officials said. Late Wednesday, troops raided a home in a Baath Party neighborhood here and arrested another man they identified as a local Baath Party official. His name was not released either. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A soldier of the 4th Infantry Division keeps guard over a blindfolded detainee, after a raid in Tikrit, Iraq, Friday May 2, 2003. In a raid against the Baath Party, about 20 people were taken into custody. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)