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Reuters
Thursday, April 17, 2003

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AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar - U.S.-led special forces in Baghdad captured Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan, a former head of Iraqi intelligence, on Thursday, a U.S. general said.

"Early this morning, coalition special operations forces, supported by U.S. Marines, captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al- Tikriti," U.S. Army Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news conference at war headquarters in Qatar.

"Barzan is...an adviser to the former regime leader with extensive knowledge of the regime's inner working. There were no friendly or enemy casualties. The capture demonstrates the coalition's commitment to relentlessly pursuing the scattered members of a fractured regime."

Barzan was number 52 and the five of clubs in a U.S. pack of cards of 55 most-wanted Iraqis distributed to the troops. His brother Watban was captured some days ago.

His home west of Baghdad, which was also an operations center for the intelligence service, was targeted by six U.S. "smart bombs" on April 11.

Brooks said Barzan, who ran Iraqi intelligence service from 1979 to 1983 and was Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1997, was captured alone in Baghdad after a tip-off by Iraqis.

A U.S. military official said last week's strike on Barzan's home near the city of Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, was probably aimed at doing further harm to the already battered command and control system for Iraq's fighting forces.

The fate of Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, remains a mystery. U.S. officials say they do not know if they are dead or alive after two separate airstrikes aimed at killing Hussein.

The U.S. military confirmed on Monday that it had captured Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, another of Hussein's three half brothers and number 51 on the U.S. most-wanted list. He was also an adviser but apparently estranged from Saddam.

The only other person on the list known to be in custody is Hussein's top scientific adviser Amer Hammoudi al-Saadi -- number 55. He surrendered to U.S. troops in Baghdad last weekend.

Reputedly Saddam's "banker in the West" while in the diplomatic post in Geneva, Barzan has rejected allegations that he helped kill rebellious Kurds in the 1980s.

The London-based human rights group Indict seeks to have him tried for war crimes against Iraqi Kurds.