DETERMINATION PRECEDES TERMINATION:

Saddam's half brother captured in Iraq (SAMEER N. YACOUB, February 27, 2005, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Iraqi security forces captured Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, Saddam Hussein's half brother and former adviser who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted the former dictator, the government said Sunday.

In a statement, the Prime Minister's office said the arrest "shows the determination of the Iraqi government to chase and detain all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people, then bring them to justice to face the right punishment."

Al-Hassan is No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis released by U.S. authorities after troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, and one of only 12 remaining at large. He is also suspected of financing insurgents in the post-Saddam era, and Washington had put a $1 million bounty on his head.

The government statement said al-Hassan had "killed and tortured Iraqi people." It also said he had "participated effectively in planning, supervising, and carrying out many terrorist acts in Iraq."

There are reports, though of uncertain reliability, that Mr. Allawi thinks they're close to getting Zarqawi and that catching him would be such a coup that it could secure him the P.M. post in the next government.

MORE:
Iraq Says Zarqawi Aide Captured (Monte Morin, February 25, 2005, LA Times)

The Iraqi government claimed today that its soldiers had captured a key aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of an insurgent network suspected of killing more than 500 people in a wave of car bombings, assassinations and beheadings.

The capture is the latest in a string of raids conducted in Baghdad, Mosul and western Iraq said to net top Zarqawi lieutenants and soldiers. Iraqi and U.S. military authorities claim to have captured or killed more than half a dozen such operatives since January, including the network's top bomb maker and it's website designer.

In a statement today, the government said Iraqi forces had captured Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, a lieutenant responsible for "arranging safehouses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to Zarqawi."

The suspected aide, who also goes by the name Abu Qutaybah, was seized in a Feb. 20 raid in Anah, a town about 160 miles northwest of Baghdad, in the western province of Anbar, the government said. The province is dominated by Sunni Muslims, who have led the ongoing insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with Zarqawi," the government said. "His extensive contacts and operational ability throughout western Iraq made him a critical figure in the Zarqawi network."

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 27, 2005 10:43 AM