Posted on 12/06/2003 10:32:38 AM PST by Dog
US closing in on Saddam man 06/12/2003 17:04 - (SA)
Baghdad - US troops acting on a tip about one of the wives of Saddam Hussein's fugitive number two Izzat Ibrahim on Saturday detained the brother of a security guard from Ibrahim's office.
The detention was the latest step in a massive country-wide manhunt for Ibrahim, who has a $10m bounty on his head.
Troops took away the man, whose name was not immediately available, after they raided a house in southeast Baghdad on Saturday afternoon.
"The other brother, who is not here, worked as security in the office that Izzat Ibrahim worked under," said First Lieutenant Chad Morris, of the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry regiment.
Soldiers found photos of a man in what their translator said was the uniform of a VIP protection unit, and what an Iraqi Civil Defence Corps officer with them identified as belonging to the Republican Guard, the elite troops of the ousted dictator.
They also recovered an identification card marked "security" in English, and which their Iraqi aides told them was used on trips to Egypt.
Soldiers raided the house after receiving a tip during a larger search for weapons and Saddam loyalists in the city's southeast.
"We have an informant that told us he knows where one of his (Ibrahim's) wives's families is," said Captain Ken Burgess, who commands the 2nd Battalion's Charlie Company.
They found three women and eight young children at the house. The women denied knowing Ibrahim and were not detained. Only the man was taken away for questioning.
Morris said he was convinced the house had a link to Ibrahim, number two on the former regime's all-powerful Revolution Command Council and number six on the US most wanted list.
"I'm pretty sure that there's a tie, either through work or family relationship," he said.
On Tuesday, troops in northern Iraq detained Ibrahim's private secretary during a huge manhunt that involved the closure of Hawijah town for more than 16 hours.
On November 26, troops raided a house in the northern town of Samarra and arrested one of Ibrahim's wives and a daughter.
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