CAIRO -- Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Barzan al-Takriti, died Friday morning in a U.S. bombing of his farm, in the region of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a family friend told AFP.

Barzan had been placed under house arrest by Saddam on March 5 in a villa of the Radwaniya presidential palace compound, in Jadriya, near Baghdad airport, the source said, requesting anonymity.

When U.S. troops entered Baghdad, he fled to his farm in Ramadi, some 100 kilometers (60 MILES) away. His family, living in Europe, told me he died as a martyr this morning," said the friend. "A number of his bodyguards were also killed," he added, indicating that Barzan was "52-53 years old."

U.S. Central Command said earlier Friday that Barzan had been targeted by air strikes in Ramadi with six JDAM "smart bombs".

Saddam had put him under house arrest for contesting his wish that the former Iraqi leader's younger son, Qusay, succeed him should be killed, the friend said.

Barzan was apppointed head of Iraq's intelligence 1983 and fell out with Saddam in 1988 because he objected to the marriage of one of the toppled president's daughters to Hussein Kamel Hassan, said the family friend.

Hussein Kamal is a member of the Takriti clan who became a leading figure of the regime, in charge of military industrialization, before he defected in 1995 to Jordan. He was killed in 1996 upon his return to Iraq.

Saddam's eldest son Uday had also married Barzan's daughter Saja "a long time ago," but they divorced after a few weeks, said the family friend.

After his dispute with Saddam, Barzan was sent in 1988 to Geneva to represent Iraq at the United Nations and returned to Iraq in 1998.