washingtonpost.com
Second Iraqi Vice President Captured
Taha Yassin Ramadan Is No. 20 on Most Wanted List
By Hrvoje Hranjski
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, August 19, 2003; 8:27 AM
TIKRIT, Iraq –– Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former Iraqi vice president known as "Saddam's knuckles" for his ruthlessness, was turned over to U.S. forces in Mosul on Tuesday.
Ramadan was captured Tuesday by Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq and an Arab satellite television station said he was disguised in peasant clothing.
The 65-year-old former vice president was once considered Iraq's second-most powerful man, but his influence declined in the later years of Saddam Hussein's regime. He was No. 20 on the U.S. most-wanted list of former regime figures.
Also Tuesday, the top American official in Iraq accused Syria of letting "terrorists" cross the border.
The U.S. military on Tuesday also reported another attack on U.S. forces. Assailants driving alongside an ambulance for cover fired on soldiers in one of Saddam's palaces on Monday night, a military official said. No soldiers were injured.
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster, said Ramadan was captured Tuesday by troops of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. He was disguised in peasant clothing, the broadcaster said.
Pentagon spokeswoman Chief Diane Perry confirmed that Ramadan had been turned over to the U.S. Army on Tuesday.
Ramadan, who became vice president in March 1991 and was a Revolutionary Command Council member, headed a 1970 court that executed 44 officers for plotting to overthrow the regime.
The U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said in remarks published Tuesday that Syria, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was allowing "foreign terrorists" to sneak across the border into Iraq.
"We held talks with the Syrians in this regard, we hope to see better cooperation," Bremer told the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat.
Bremer also said he was "still worried" over Iran's meddling in Iraq's affairs, accusing Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence of actively working against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
"This is irresponsible conduct and runs counter to Iraq's interests. We believe that a free Iraq must not be subject to any interference by its neighbors," Bremer was quoted as saying.
Monday night's attack came shortly after a bomb blew up along the same road in Tikrit, 120 miles north of Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steve Russell of the 4th Infantry Division said.
"We don't believe that the ambulance itself was engaged" in the firing on the troops, Russell said. "This is not the first time we've seen ambulances used in cross fire."
But Maj. Josslyn Aberle, also of the 4th Infantry, said that while no gunfire came from the ambulance, soldiers found an automatic rifle and ammunition inside. The three occupants, one of whom was wounded, were detained for questioning.
An audiotape, purportedly from an al-Qaida militant, calls on Muslims around the world to travel to Iraq and fight the U.S.-led occupation.
The speaker on the audiotape, obtained by The Associated Press and aired Monday on Al-Arabiya television, claimed to be Abdur Rahman al-Najdi, a Saudi-born militant sought by the United States.
A wanted poster for al-Najdi was circulated by U.S. forces in Afghanistan earlier this year, alongside others for Osama bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and other militants. Western intelligence sources believe the Taliban, al-Qaida and fighters loyal to Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are working together to oppose U.S.-led forces and the Afghan government.
The tape was thought to be the first public call by bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network for Muslims to join the fight in Iraq.
In Washington, a U.S. official familiar with the audio message could not confirm its authenticity. However, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said al-Najdi is a known senior al-Qaida propagandist and financier who has released messages in the past to boost the morale within al-Qaida's ranks.
On Tuesday, a suspicious fire continued to rage on Iraq's main northern oil export pipeline into Turkey, the U.S. Army said. Accounts varied over whether the blaze was accidental or an act of sabotage. It would take at least 10 days to repair the damaged pipeline once the fire is extinguished, U.S. military officials said.
Bremer said Monday that the sabotage of water, petroleum and electrical lines was slowing U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq.
"It's people who do not share the vision of a free Iraq with a vibrant economy the president has set forth and which Iraqis share," Bremer said on CNN. "These are probably people left over from the old regime who are simply fighting a rear guard action."
In the past three months, such attacks have cost billions of dollars in damage, according to Bremer. But he warned that the United States would not be pushed out of Iraq.
Most people in Baghdad had water service Tuesday after saboteurs blew an enormous hole in a 5-foot-diameter water main in the north of the city.
In other attacks, a U.S. soldier was killed by an explosive device in Baghdad on Monday, but the military said it was not clear if the blast was the result of a hostile act.
Two 4th Infantry soldiers also were wounded in a separate incident when their patrol was fired on with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire in the town of Balad, the army said. Both soldiers were evacuated to an Army support hospital in stable condition.
North of Tikrit, Iraqi police and fire brigades discovered six bodies from an explosion two days earlier at an ammunition storage site. It wasn't clear what caused the blast, which was followed by secondary explosions, but Army officials blamed looters. One other body was recovered at the site Monday. |
