Saddam's daughter and wife on wanted list.

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Saddam's daughter and wife on wanted list

52 minutes ago


Iraq on Sunday named Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter and first wife on its most-wanted list along with top Baathists and al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq, a day after the bloodiest bombing in three months killed over 60.
The remains of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike last month, have been buried in Iraq in a secret grave after the U.S. military handed over the body to the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials and the U.S. military said.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had called on the U.S. military to release the body of Jordanian Zarqawi to his family in a Web site audio tape on Friday and said Jordan's King Abdullah should allow him to be buried in his home town, Zarqa.
Iraqi, U.S. and Jordanian authorities have been anxious, however, that the tomb of a man hailed by bin Laden as a "lion of Jihad" not become a place of pilgrimage for militants.
National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie announced the list of 41 "most wanted" a day after a car bomb devastated a market in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad in the deadliest attack since a Shi'ite-led unity government was formed six weeks ago.
The blast in the Shi'ite militia stronghold of Sadr City drew angry responses from radical Shi'ites against Sh'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan and his efforts to reach out to the once-dominant Sunni minority.
The carnage, by far the worst since Zarqawi was killed on June 7, has raised the prospect of sectarian civil war.
Saddam's daughter, Raghd, has taken a leading role in organizing her father's legal defense in his trial for crimes against humanity in Baghdad. Now aged about 40, she lives in neighboring Jordan having been granted asylum there, along with her sister Rana and their children, in 2003.
Raghd and Rana's husbands, both brothers and themselves related to Saddam, were killed by fellow tribesmen on returning to Iraq in 1996 after having defected and betrayed Saddam.
FUNDING
His first wife Sajida, mother of Raghd, is also on the list topped by former Saddam deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and including the new head of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
"These people you see here carry out the majority of what you see in bombings," Rubaie told a news conference in Baghdad.
Iraqi officials have long accused Saddam's family of using secretly looted millions to fund Baathist insurgent groups.
The list also included senior members from Saddam's Baath party and al Qaeda militants. Some, like Douri, are still also on the three-year-old "deck of cards," a list of 55 wanted Baathist officials issued by the U.S. military.
Most of the 55 are dead or in captivity but Douri, at times reported killed, appears still to be at liberty.
Insurgents from Saddam's Sunni minority are leading a rebellion against the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. Senior Baathists, who fled their posts in the wake of U.S. invading forces, are believed to be playing a key role in the insurgency that has killed more than 2,000 Americans.
ZARQAWI

Rubaie told Reuters Zarqawi, who led a bloody campaign against Shi'ites in a bid to ignite civil war in Iraq, had been buried in a secret location somewhere in Iraq.
"The Iraqi authorities recently buried the body of Zarqawi in a marked but secret place," Rubaie said.
A U.S. military spokesman said Zarqawi's body had been turned over to the Iraqi government and buried in accordance with Muslim custom. He declined further comment.
The Jordanian government also refused to comment. Zarqawi's family had asked that the former militant be buried in Jordan.
Masri, on whom the United States placed a $5-million bounty on Friday, was named the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Bin Laden endorsed him in an Internet recording on Saturday and warned Iraqi Shi'ites they would face "retribution." A Shi'ite member of parliament escaped a kidnap attempt near Baghdad on Sunday in which seven of her guards were abducted, colleagues said. Another woman lawmaker, a Sunni, was kidnapped on Saturday, prompting colleagues to walk out of parliament.





2006 Reuters Limited.