United States troops raided a house near Saddam Hussein's hometown on Thursday, rounding up several people suspected of belonging to his personal security detail and enhancing the chances of finding the deposed dictator, an American military commander said today.

"I believe that we continue to tighten the noose, and I believe that we continue to gain more and more information about where he might be," Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno said.

In the raid on Thursday south of Tikrit, 13 people were picked up, General Odierno said. "Somewhere between 5 and 10 of those we're still sorting through it are believed to be Saddam Hussein's personal security detachment," said General Odierno, commander of the Army's Fourth Infantry Division.

The general spoke to reporters at the Pentagon by way of a two-way video hookup from Tikrit. His assessment that American forces may be closing in on Mr. Hussein took on extra weight, since the former leader's two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed in a gunfight with American soldiers on Tuesday.

Since the news of the Hussein sons' deaths, more and more Iraqis have come forward with useful information, the general said.

"Last night, we had an Iraqi walk in to one of my brigade headquarters and say, `I know where there's a cache of weapons,' " General Odierno said. "He gave us the grid. He said, `There's a house, and then 200 meters from that house, there is a container buried under the ground.' So we sent our patrol out there."

The search party turned up 10 AK-47 assault rifles, 34 grenade launchers and 150 rounds of ammunition for them, 80,000 feet of demolition cord, 45,000 sticks of dynamite and various firearms, General Odierno said.

The separate raid that netted the people believed to have been members of Mr. Hussein's personal detail was also based on a tip from an informant and reflected the increasing cooperation of ordinary Iraqis, General Odierno said.

"They understand that we will act if they provide us the information," he said.

Remnants of die-hard forces loyal to Mr. Hussein continue to carry out attacks on "softer targets," or non-military ones, because attacks on American troops are increasingly futile, the general said. "We see this more as a desperation move," he said. "And I think in a way it's backfiring, because we've found when they do this, it's causing more Iraqis to come in and give us information."

As for prospects of finding Mr. Hussein, "we continue to police-up individuals that have a relationship with him," the general said, using the traditional military term for trash collection.

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