Tribal sheikh close to Saddam number two arrested in northern Iraq

AFP ^ | 12/23/03

[saquin]

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - A tribal chief with close ties to Saddam Hussein's number two, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, was arrested by US troops in Iraq's main northern city Tuesday, relatives and a member of the Iraqi security force that helped arrest him told AFP.

Sheikh Ghazi Hanash, head of the influential Tayy tribe, was detained at his Mosul home along with three of his sons after an exchange of fire which left one of Hanash's bodyguards dead, said Waadallah Tewfik Hassan, a member of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps who participated in the operation.

No information on the arrests was immediately available from the US military in Mosul, 396 kilometres (250 miles) north of Baghdad.

The tribal chief's daughter was also wounded during the gunfight, said Hassan and Hanash's relatives.

Hanash was arrested because of his ties to Ibrahim, Hassan said.

The fugitive former number two, who is suspected of directing many of the attacks against US forces and forging an alliance with Islamic extremists, is a childhood friend of Hanash, the sheikh's relatives said.

The US military has put a 10-million-dollar bounty on the head of Ibrahim, the most senior former Iraqi official still at large following Saddam's capture on December 13.

[saquin]

Getting closer...

[Dog]

Was this a planned raid?

[tractorman]

Time to get out the pliers of truth!

[Coop]

Hmmm. I wonder if this dude and his three sons equal the four al-Douri associates nabbed earlier in the day, or if this is yet another capture?

[Dog]

Sounds like a different raid.....the one early today was in Babquba(sp).

[Coop]

Aha! Good man. Well, another one off the streets. And a few more beads of sweat on al-Douri's brow. That's just a darned shame! :-)

[martin_fierro]

FYI Ping

[No Blue States]

Are all your friendships worth more to them than 10 million AL Duri?

If you are paranoid you have good reason. Our troops will be visiting your spiderhole maybe before years end.

[thinktwice]

Sheikh Ghazi Hanash, head of the influential Tayy tribe, was detained at his Mosul home along with three of his sons

House arrest? The first step, perhaps, in getting purchased cooperation?

[Dog]

We get al-Douri...we stop the attacks...he is the key.

I heard something on Fox earlier it seems and aide to Chalabi is claiming that Saddam's daughter Raghad is funding attacks in Iraq....from Jordan..going to get interesting.

[Bedford Forrest]

If that is the case, put her in a cell next to her father and let him see her being interrogated by some Iraqi cop whose father and brothers were put on one of Saddam's one-way bus rides into the desert.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping. we are cleaning out the snakes , slowly but surely!

[Coop]

We get al-Douri...we stop the attacks...he is the key.

I'm not that optimistic, although it will undoubtedly be yet another sharp blow to the thugs. But there will certainly still be some deadenders and folks just mad at America continuing to attack. IMHO