World

Syria Nabs Saddam's Half-Brother

February 27, 2005 / 3:01 PM EST / CBS/AP

Iraqi officials said Sunday that Syrian authorities captured Saddam Hussein's half brother in Syria and handed him over to Iraq in an apparent goodwill gesture.

Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former adviser to Saddam suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted the former dictator, was captured in Hasakah in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, two senior Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The officials did not specify when al-Hassan was captured, only saying he was detained following the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon.

Syria has come under intense scrutiny following Hariri's death, with many in Lebanon blaming Damascus and Beirut's pro-Syrian government for the killing.

The United States and France also called on Damascus to withdraw 15,000 Syrian troops from Lebanon following Hariri's death.

Washington has long accused Syria of harboring and aiding former members of Saddam's toppled Baathist regime suspected of involvement in the deadly insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

"The capture appeared to be a goodwill gesture by the Syrians to show that they are cooperating," one official told the AP.

Al-Hassan was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis — and the six of diamonds in the U.S.-issued deck of cards — released by U.S. authorities after American troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, and among a recent group of 29 most-wanted supporters of insurgents in Iraq. The United States had a $1 million bounty on his head.

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.

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 other developments:

Iraqis have threatened bloodshed over a decision introducing a second weekly day off. They welcome the extra free time, but are angered the new weekend includes Saturday - the Jewish Sabbath. They want Thursdays off instead.

The body of Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan, a 35-year-old anchorwoman for the U.S.-funded Nineveh TV, was found dumped along a Mosul street, six days after she was kidnapped by masked gunmen, according to her husband, who said she had been shot four times in the head. The mother of three boys and a girl had been threatened with death several times by insurgents who demanded she quit her job, he said.

A British newspaper reported Sunday that secret military documents it has seen indicate that nearly 50 British servicemen could face prosecution for murder, assault and other crimes committed in Iraq. The documents, which informed ministers about police investigations in the cases, indicate that the total includes at least 12 British soldiers who face charges of murder, manslaughter or assault in Iraq, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

A U.S. Marine was killed Saturday during military operations in central Babil province. In Hammam Alil, 240 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded inside the police headquarters, killing five people. In Baghdad, gunmen attacked police heading to work in the western Amiriyah district, killing two of them. Baghdad police 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.

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.

Iraqi authorities said Saturday they were close to capturing the country's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda'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.