U.S. forces in Iraq yesterday captured three Iraqi officials included in a list of the 55 most-wanted members of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to the Associated Press (see related GSN story, today).

With yesterday’s capture, 14 Iraqi officials included on the list have either been captured or are believed to have been killed.  U.S. officials hope that interrogations with captured Iraqi officials could provide useful information in the search of Iraq weapons of mass destruction.

Among the officials captured in Baghdad yesterday was Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al-Tikriti, former head of Iraq’s air defense network and No. 10 on the U.S. list.  Al-Tikriti is also believed to have helped train the Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary forces.

U.S. troops also captured Gen. Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib, former head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence and No. 21 on the U.S. list; and former Iraqi Trade Minister Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih, No. 48 on the U.S. list (Associated Press/USA Today, April 24).

In an interview conducted with the Los Angeles Times prior to surrendering to U.S. troops, al-Naqib denied that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction or that he had done anything that could be considered as a crime against humanity.

“This was the military — you move up from position to position,” al-Naqib said.  “I was just following orders,” he said (Rubin/Slackman, Los Angeles Times, April 24).

In addition to al-Tikriti, al-Naqib and al-Salih, U.S. forces have also captured:

Muhammad Hazmaq al-Zubaidi, Central Euphrates region military commander and former deputy prime minister, No. 18 on the U.S. list;

Samir Abd al-Aziz al-Najm, Baath Party chairman for the Diyala region, No. 24 on the U.S. list;

Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, deputy chief of tribal affairs, No. 40 on the U.S. list;

Hikmat al-Azzawi, former Iraqi finance minister, No. 45 on the U.S. list;

Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Baath Party official and former intelligence minister, No. 51 on the U.S. list;

Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Baath party official and former head of the Mukhabarat intelligence service, No. 52 on the U.S. list;

Humam Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafur, former minister of higher education and scientific research, No. 54 on the U.S. list; and

Amir Hamudi Hasan al-Sadi, former presidential scientific adviser, No. 55 on the U.S. list (BBC News, April 23).

“Chemical Ali" — Dead or Alive?

Meanwhile, Baghdad hospital workers have said they saw Ali Hassan al-Majid — known as “Chemical Ali” for ordering a 1998 chemical weapons attack on Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq — alive shortly before the city was captured (see GSN, April 10).

Al-Majid was twice reported to have been killed during coalition air raids on the southern city of Basra, first on March 22 and then on April 5, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Two workers at the Baghdad Nursing Hospital, part of the Saddam Hospital Complex, said they saw a healthy al-Majid arrive after the April 5 airstrike.

“Of course I was very, very surprised to see him, because the radio said he was killed,” a nurse at the hospital said (Juan Tamayo, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 24).

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