Senior Iraqi official handed to US

Senior Iraqi official handed to US

Najem is on the US top 55 most wanted Iraqi officials list

Iraqi Kurds have handed over to US-led forces one of the most senior officials on America's most wanted list of Iraqi officials.

Samir al-Aziz al-Najem, Regional Command Chairman for east Baghdad for Saddam Hussein's Baath party, was captured in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, US Central Command said.

He was on the US top 55 list - handed out to US forces as playing cards to aid the search - of most wanted Iraqi officials, as the four of clubs.

"We think we have someone here - all those people on that list of 55 have information on the inner workings of the regime - that relates to weapons of mass destruction, that relates to terrorism," US Army Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks said.

His capture comes a day after US-led special forces detained Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, in Baghdad.

Key insider

Mr Najem, a veteran Baath party official who was Iraq's minister of oil until earlier this year, Saddam Hussein's chief of staff for several years following the 1991 Gulf War.

CAPTURED IRAQI LEADERS

24. Samir al-Aziz al-Najem

51. Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti

52. Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti

55. General Amir al-Saadi

(As ranked on America's list)

US' 55 most-wanted Iraqis

He also served as the country's ambassador to Egypt, Turkey, Spain and Moscow, and is considered one of the top insiders around Saddam Hussein.

US officials believe he was rated so highly by the former Iraqi leader that he was sent to take control of military operations in northern Iraq.

Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, was seized alone earlier on Thursday following a tip-off by Iraqis, General Brooks said.

"The capture demonstrates the coalition's commitment to relentlessly pursuing the scattered members of a fractured regime," he said, adding that the former intelligence chief will be questioned by US officials.

"Barzan is... an adviser to the former regime leader with extensive knowledge of the regime's inner working."

The BBC's Dominic Hughes at US Central Command in Qatar says the arrest is particularly significant as the Americans rely on senior Iraqi officials to provide details of Iraq's weapons programmes.

'Justice'

Barzan al-Tikriti ran the Iraqi intelligence service between 1979 and 1983 before becoming Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations.

Barzan al-Tikriti as pictured by the US military

He is number 52 on the American list of 55 most wanted Iraqis and the second of Saddam Hussein's three brothers to be taken.

His brother, Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti, was arrested near the Syrian border at the weekend.

American agents questioning Barzan al-Tikriti will be trying to tap into his extensive knowledge of the inner workings of Saddam Hussein's regime, our correspondent says.

Human rights groups regard him as one of the most enthusiastically sadistic members of Saddam's inner circle.

British-based organisation Indict alleges that, as head of intelligence, he was responsible for a catalogue of mass murder and torture who personally participated in a number of atrocities.

They accuse him of participating in the detention and murder of several thousand men who disappeared from the Barzani tribe in 1983.

In the same year, he allegedly carried out the destruction of two villages and orchestrated the subsequent murder or deportation of the inhabitants.