Old mug shot of the mutt.
Posted on 02/27/2005 9:47:58 AM PST by anymouse
Iraqi security forces captured Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former adviser, government officials said Sunday, dealing a blow to an insurgency that some Iraqi officials claim the former fugitive was helping organize and fund, perhaps from Syria. The U.S. military also said two American soldiers were killed Sunday in an ambush in the capital.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis released by U.S. authorities after American troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, and he also was named one of the 29 most-wanted supporters of insurgents in Iraq. The United States had a $1 million bounty on his head.
Officials in interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed al-Hassan's capture but gave no details on where it took place or when. Capt. Ahmed Ismael, an intelligence officer in the Interior Ministry, said al-Hassan was detained early Sunday.
In a statement, Allawi's office said the arrest "shows the determination of the Iraqi government to chase and detain all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people, then bring them to justice to face the right punishment."
It was not immediately known whether U.S. troops played any role in the arrest of al-Hassan, who was the six of diamonds in the U.S.-issued deck of cards showing wanted Iraqis. The U.S. military had no comment.
Al-Hassan's arrest came during a period of increased U.S. and Iraqi military activity against insurgents, who continued their campaign of violence against coalition forces and those Iraqis they believe are helping them or sympathize with them.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday and another two were wounded after apparently being ambushed in southeast Baghdad with a bomb and rifle fire, the military said.
The attack raised the weekend death toll for Americans to three. The U.S. command said a Marine was killed Saturday during military operations in central Babil province.
At least 1,494 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In the northern town of Hammam Alil, 240 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded inside the police headquarters, killing five people, including some police officers, said Khorshid Sultan, a coroner at the main hospital in Mosul.
In Baghdad, gunmen attacked police heading to work in the western Amiriyah district, killing two of them, police said. Police also found the body of an Iraqi woman, dressed in traditional black, with a sign that said "spy" pinned to her chest.
In Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi troops found four beheaded corpses on a farm. The four people belonged to the Badr Organization, a wing of the main Shiite political group, the Supreme Council For the Islamic Revolution. They were kidnapped earlier Saturday while driving to the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Yassin said.
The Badr Organization replaced the former Badr Brigade, SCIRI's armed wing, which was dissolved after a government order to disband militia groups last year.
Saddam and al-Hassan had the same mother but different fathers.
Under Saddam, al-Hassan led the dreaded General Security Directorate, which was responsible for internal security, especially cracking down on political parties opposing Saddam. Al-Hassan was accused of torturing and killing political opponents while leading that body.
He later became a presidential adviser, the last post he held in the former regime.
The government statement said he had "killed and tortured Iraqi people" and "participated effectively in planning, supervising, and carrying out many terrorist acts in Iraq."
In December, Allawi accused Syria of harboring senior officials from Saddam's ousted regime, including al-Hassan. Qassem Dawoud, Iraq's minister in charge of national security, claimed that al-Hassan was supporting insurgents in Iraq from Syria, according to remarks published last year in Kuwait's Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.
Al-Hassan's capture was the latest in a series of arrests the government hopes will deal a blow to the insurgency.
"This is a great achievement for the Iraqi security forces," National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told Dubai's al-Arabiya TV. "It is also a lesson for others to give themselves up to the Iraqi authorities."
Iraqi authorities said Saturday they were close to capturing the country's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's mastermind in Iraq and believed to be behind much of the insurgent violence. One of al-Zarqawi's key aides and a man who served as his driver were arrested Feb. 20.
The United States has placed a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi.
In other arrests, Iraqi National Guardsmen said they captured 15 alleged insurgents Saturday in a series of raids in Musayyib, about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Defense Ministry official Capt. Sabah Yassin.
The 12 Iraqis and three Syrians confessed to being members of the insurgent Ansar al-Sunnah Army, Yassin said. That group has claimed responsibility for attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces, including in a December suicide bombing that killed 22 people, mostly Americans, at a U.S. military mess tent in Mosul.
Yassin said the 15 were found with weapons and CDs showing beheadings.
Saddam's two other half-brothers, Barzan and Watban, were captured in April 2003 and are expected to stand trial with Saddam at the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Both appeared before the special court in Baghdad with Saddam and a handful of others to hear preliminary accusations against them.
Associated Press reporters Sameer N. Yacoub and Todd Pitman in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Ummm, probably should look about 3 articles south in the "Breaking News" bar...
Old mug shot of the mutt.
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| Saddam Hussein's half-brother captured in Iraq ^ |
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| Posted by lodi90 On 02/27/2005 3:17:41 AM EST · 86 replies · 2,107+ views Reuters ^ Sunday February 27, 08:05 AM Saddam Hussein's half-brother captured in Iraq BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A half-brother and former adviser to Saddam Hussein has been captured in Iraq, according to sources in the interim government. Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was number 36 on the U.S. military's list of the 55 most wanted people in Iraq. No other details were provided. An official announcement would be made soon, the sources said on Saturday. "Sabawi is captured, he's a big catch," one official in the government said. |
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Sorry, I did a searh on the article title.
Uh, oh. Babwa Boxer will be upset and Diane Sawyer will worry that the poor guy is in a cold hard cell being mistreated.......
Is it my imagination or is the number of terrorist leaders being captured accellerating since the elections?
I'm pretty sure it's not my imagination.
US deaths are down since then, too.
Mr. Fez?
Doesn't it seem like they've captured a couple of dozen "half-brothers" of Saddam Hussein since the war began?
Wolfie just reported via AP that Syria captured him in NE Syria and turned him over to Iraq as a 'good will gesture'
How much you want to bet the others of the 55 that have not been captured are in Syria. And, that Syria only did this to get Iraq and the US and others off their backs (for a little while). I'm sure they knew where he was all along and just waiting until they needed a get out of jail free card. They better know this doesn't change much for them from the US POV.
Separated at birth?
I read on one of the Iraqi blogs that Allawi gave them a list of people who were there in Syria, a list of Syrian officers who had been taking bribes including the amounts and who paid them. He said he would start televising the confessions of the Syrian intelligence officers if they didn't cooperate. The Syrians called his bluff......only he wasn't bluffing. The next day, Al Iraqia started televising Syrian intelligence officers confessing. :o)
Allawi is a tough guy.
Maybe after we have constituted Iraq's army, that army can attack Syria in retaliation for its attacks inside Iraq.
Separated at birth
Send his head wrapped in todays news paper.
Even the NYT doesn't deserve to be used for this purpose. Where would you send his head anyway?
Better to let the new Iraqi police recruits use him for target practice. It might take them a while to finish him off, but eventually they might find the mark.
Good point!
That's not as coincidental as you might think -- Freddie Mercury, formerly Farook Bulsara, was Persian.
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