Six JDAM "smart bombs" were dropped on the home of Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti on Thursday in the town some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital, it said in a press release, adding that he is a presidential advisor.

Centcom did not say if Barzan or anyone else had been killed in the attack.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri last month dismissed a press report that Saddam had put his half-brother, an ex-envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, under house arrest after he refused to pledge support for Saddam's powerful son Qusay in the event he succeeds the Iraqi leader.

SPACE.WIRE