Baghdad, Iraq ? Workers began demolishing gigantic bronze busts of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on Tuesday, while U.S. troops to the north arrested at least 20 insurgents in a raid — both moves aimed at stamping out loyalty to Iraq’s ousted regime.

Iraqi police said a senior former member of Saddam’s elite Republican Guard was among those captured in Hawija, 155 miles north of Baghdad. However, the U.S. troops failed to catch the target of the raid — Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, considered a key planner of attacks against U.S. troops.

Also in the north, insurgents kept up attacks against U.S.-led forces, with a soldier of the 4th Infantry Division killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra, the scene of deadly weekend battles between Americans and Iraqis.

Meanwhile, relatives of U.S. troops visiting Iraq pressed their agenda to meet with leaders of the occupation authority, hoping to voice their opposition to the U.S.-led occupation.

One mother held back tears while looking at U.S. soldiers guarding the entrance of the Habbaniyah military base in Baghdad.

“They are so young. This is not for them. … They look just like my boy,” said Annabelle Valencia, whose daughter, 24, and son, 22, are both based in Iraq.

Elsewhere in the capital, workers using a construction crane started dismantling the 13-foot busts of Saddam from his former Republican Palace, now the headquarters of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

It was unclear how long the work would take.

Lt. Col. William MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said the raids in Hawija were aimed at capturing former regime members financing guerrilla attacks in the region.

A U.S. helicopter flies over a giant bronze bust of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Workers on Tuesday began to dismantle four busts atop the former Republican Palace.

Iraqi police said U.S. troops had captured more than 100 people, including a senior former member of Saddam’s elite Republican Guard. Six Iraqis were wounded in the raid, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether they were all insurgents.

The U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade detained 20 suspected insurgents, but not al-Douri, the top Iraqi fugitive after Saddam. Earlier, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council had said al-Douri had been caught.

“We have no reports that we have captured or killed al-Douri,” MacDonald said.