Key Iraqi ´weapons official´ held
US military officials say they have arrested three
senior members of Saddam Hussein´s regime,
including the official in charge of developing
Iraqi weapons.
The man - former Deputy Prime Minister Abd al
Tawab Mullah Huwaysh - was 16th in the list of 55
most-wanted Iraqi officials.
US investigators will hope his arrest will help
them in the search for the weapons of mass
destruction that Washington said Iraq possessed,
but which have so far proved elusive.
A former vice-president - who was not believed to
have been within Saddam Hussein´s inner circle -
has also been held, US Central Command said.
Along with a third person reportedly arrested on
Thursday, the coalition are now believed to have
18 senior Iraqi figures in custody.
The latest arrests come hours after President
George W Bush held a victory speech, saying the US
had prevailed in the "Battle of Iraq".
Without formally declaring the war over, Mr Bush
vowed to continue "to hunt down the enemy before
he can strike".
In other developments:
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the war
in Iraq is not finished and it is "not knowable"
how long US troops would stay there
The United Nations says it is re-establishing a
permanent presence in Baghdad, as a senior
humanitarian official arrives there
Key Iraqi political parties begin a series of
meetings to discuss moves to set up an interim
government
The US formally closes its operation run out of
Turkey to monitor a northern no-fly zone in Iraq
Weapons boss
Abd al Tawab Mullah Huwaysh - the 10 of hearts in
the 55-stack of cards produced in April - was head
of the Ministry of Military Industrialisation in
Iraq, a department established in the 1980s to
develop weapons.
No details have been given on whether he was
captured or gave himself up.
Taha Muhyl al Din Maruf as well as being a
vice-president was also a member of the Republican
Command Council, the statement from Central
Command said.
The nine of diamonds was number 42 on the list of
targeted officials.
A number higher on the list was Mizban Khidir
Hadi, commander of one of four military regions
Saddam Hussein established on the eve of the war.
The nine of hearts was arrested on Thursday in
Baghdad, the US Army´s Fifth Corps said, according
to the Associated Press News Agency. There has
been no confirmation from Centcom.
´Victory not end´
In his victory speech, Mr Bush said "difficult
work" remained to be done in Iraq.
"We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old
regime, who will be held to account for their
crimes. We have begun a search for chemical and
biological weapons, and already know hundreds of
sites that will be investigated," he said.
He linked the war in Iraq to the 11 September 2001
attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"The Battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on
terror that began on 11 September 2001, and still
goes on," he said.
We have begun the search for hidden chemical and
biological weapons, and already know of hundreds
of sites that will be investigated
George W Bush
The president spoke of victories in Afghanistan,
but warned that Osama Bin Laden´s al-Qaeda network
was "wounded, not destroyed".
"We will continue to hunt down the enemy before he
can strike," he told cheering officers on the
aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Mr Bush landed on the ship in a small navy plane,
making him the first sitting US president to take
part in a so-called tailhook landing.
Earlier, Mr Bush´s spokesman Ari Fleischer warned
that the president´s speech would not mark the end
of hostilities "from a legal point of view".
There are legal implications to declaring a war
officially ended: under the Geneva Conventions,
once war is declared over, the victorious army
must release prisoners-of-war and halt operations
targeting specific leaders.
The US is not prepared to do that, the BBC´s Matt
Frei in Washington says.
The United States never formally declared war on
Iraq.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/
2995781.stm
Published: 2003/05/02 14:47:41
© BBC MMIII