IRAQ: A half-brother of Saddam Hussein, who has played a leading role in the Iraqi insurgency, has been captured with help from Syria, which faces US allegations of abetting terrorism, Iraqi government officials said.
The government said in a statement that Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, a top-level Baathist accused by the government of directing the Iraqi insurgency from Syria, had been caught, without saying when, where or how he was seized.
Ibrahim, an intelligence chief and one-time adviser to Saddam, was number 36 on the US military's list of the 55 most wanted people in Iraq - the six of diamonds in the US military's pack of playing cards.
The government did not say whether US or Iraqi forces had captured him. It was expected to give more details today.
However, a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Syria, feeling the heat due to accusations it was behind recent attacks in Israel and Lebanon, had played a role in giving Ibrahim up.
"The Syrian authorities, because of the tremendous pressure on them, did something about Ibrahim," the official said.
"Having so many problems on their plate at the moment, the Syrians were willing partners in this, but the Americans and we were also involved."
Another source in the government confirmed that the Syrians were involved. Syrian authorities in Damascus had no comment.
Syria has come under fire from the United States after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut nearly two weeks ago. The Lebanese opposition blamed Damascus for his death.
Iraq's US-backed government has repeatedly accused Syria of abetting militants, charges Damascus denies.
Last year Iraqi officials named Ibrahim, who was born to the same mother as Saddam, as one of two former Baath Party officials helping organise the insurgency from Syria.
Ibrahim, who had a $1 million bounty on his head, is the first person on the US pack of cards to be detained since February 2004. Nearly a dozen remain at large, including Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, one of Saddam's top aides.
The government has claimed a number of recent successes in its fight against the insurgency.
Yesterday it announced the arrest of Lieut Col Khaled Rajab, accused of running a 40-person militant cell in and around the northern city of Mosul, and on Friday it said it had captured Abu Qutaybah, described as a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq.
Al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq dismissed the claim, saying US-led forces were trying to boost low morale.
Despite the arrests, Iraq's daily suicide bomb blasts, ambushes and targeted killings persist.
A bomb near Mosul yesterday killed eight people and wounded at least two more, the US military said. Several of the dead were Iraqi security guards, police said.
In Musayyib, a town south of Baghdad, police discovered five bodies, all shot several times in the head and with their hands handcuffed behind their backs. In Baghdad, the headless body of a woman was left on a street with a note saying "spy" attached.
Near Baghdad, a car carrying a journalist working for Alhurra, a US-funded Iraqi television channel, was attacked. The driver was killed and the journalist wounded, police said.