Dr. Anthrax captured
US seizes top Iraq scientist
news.bbc.co.uk
Dr Ammash was one of the highest ranking women in Iraq
The US says it has captured one of Saddam Hussein's most senior biological weapons scientists, Dr Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash.
Dr Ammash, 49, was number 53 on the US list of 55 most wanted Iraqi leaders, and was one of the few women in Saddam Hussein's inner circle.
Word of her detention came from the Pentagon on the same day that the retired US general overseeing the reconstruction of Iraq said he expected to see the core of an interim government in place within weeks.
The northern city of Mosul took its first step towards self-government on Monday, with delegates from different ethnic groups electing a council and a mayor.
First election
It was the first time an election process had been held in an Iraqi city or town since US-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein nearly a month ago.
Correspondents say Mosul, which has seen fierce anti-US protests, remains volatile.
The council is designed to reflect the city's ethnic makeup, with places reserved for majority Arabs as well as minority Kurds, Turkmen, and Assyrian Christian groups.
General Garner outlined the possible makeup of the council
The national interim authority would also reflect the country's various ethnic groups, the US administrator, General Jay Garner, suggested.
He said on Monday that he expected up to nine Iraqis to form an interim leadership group that would be a point of contact for the Americans.
It would include returning exiles and local Iraqis, representing Iraq's ethnic and religious spectrum, he said.
The US has been very tight-lipped about the circumstances of the detention of Dr Ammash.
She was seized in Baghdad on Sunday, according to US officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
She is believed to have played a key role in Iraq's suspected development of biological weapons, although no evidence of a recent programme has been found to date.
In addition to allegedly helping rebuild Iraq's biological weapons program after the 1991 Gulf War, she was a regional commander of the ruling Baath party and chaired its youth and trade bureau.
The BBC's Nick Childs at the Pentagon says not too much should be read into her ranking on the US most-wanted list, where she was 53 out of 55.
Informants
The threat posed by Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction was the reason cited by the US for launching an invasion of the country to topple Saddam Hussein.
Mr Bush: No doubt
However, no such weapons have yet been found, and it appears that the 18 senior Iraqi officials already captured by the US have not provided the kind of information Washington is looking for.
US officials now say they believe it may be lower-level informants, rather than leaders, who reveal details of Iraq's alleged weapons programmes.
President George W Bush reiterated on Sunday that he was certain Iraq had worked on such programmes.
"Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Mr Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "It's well known."
Dr Ammash graduated from the University of Baghdad and later served as its dean.
She earned a masters degree in microbiology from Texas Woman's University and did doctoral work at the University of Missouri-Columbia. |
