Mosul, Iraq ? Saddam Hussein’s defense minister surrendered to U.S. forces Friday after lengthy negotiations the Americans hope will convince other former soldiers to abandon support for the ousted regime. U.S. soldiers beat back Saddam loyalists after some of the fiercest and best-coordinated attacks by the insurgents in months.

The ambushes in Saddam’s birthplace, near Tikrit, killed three American soldiers and wounded two others, and U.S. forces swooped in and imprisoned 58 Iraqis, including some of those involved in the attacks, the military said.

The former defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad, gave up to Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Brigade and the senior U.S. officer in the north, at the U.S. headquarters in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad.

Dawood Bagistani, the Kurdish mediator who arranged the surrender, said Ahmad was received with “with great respect” as part of a deal in which the Americans agreed to remove the ex-defense minister from their list of the 55 most-wanted regime figures. That means Ahmad would be released after he finished questioning and would not face prolonged captivity or trial, Bagistani said.

Ahmad, the eight of hearts in the deck of playing cards of Iraqi fugitives, was no. 27 on the most-wanted list. Thirty-eight of that group are now in custody and 14 remain at large. Three are either dead or thought to be dead.

On the eve of the surrender, Col. Joe Anderson, commander of the 101st Airborne’s 1st Brigade, appeared on Mosul television and said Ahmad would be treated “with dignity and respect and be allowed the opportunity to explain his former situation.”

Ahmad’s younger brother, Abdullah, said the family had wanted such a public declaration by the Americans before agreeing to surrender. “We hope that America, this great power, will keep its promise,” Abdullah said.

The special treatment for Ahmad appeared to be an effort to defuse the guerrilla-style attacks that are taking a toll on U.S. soldiers. Many of the attackers are thought to be former soldiers in Saddam’s army, and seeing their former military leader well-treated by the Americans might encourage them to abandon their insurgency. It could also win points for the Americans among local tribes, whose leaders wanted Ahmad to be well-treated.

“We are certain that they will let him go,” said one tribal chief, Sheik Bader Suheil al-Zaydi.

An American soldier of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry regiment, 4th Infantry division, approaches two Iraqi men, one holding a makeshift white flag, and the other holding his hands up high, at a security point on a road leading into Tikrit, Iraq. The U.S. military is stepping up security in and around Tikrit after a patrol was ambushed Thursday, killing three soldiers and wounding two.