Iraq's 'Dr Germ' and military leader in US custody

11.45am

WASHINGTON - US forces say they have taken into custody two more key figures from Iraq's toppled government, the British-educated microbiologist dubbed "Dr Germ" and the former armed forces chief of staff.

Rihab Rashid Taha Al-Azzawi Al-Tikriti, who received her doctorate from Britain's University of East Anglia before spearheading Iraq's biological arms development, was taken into custody over the weekend, said a defence official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The defence official said Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al Sattar Muhammad al Tikriti, listed as No 11 on the US list of the top 55 most-wanted Iraqis and designated as the jack of spades in the US deck of cards of fugitive Iraqis, also was in the control of US forces.

"We have him in custody," the official said.

Best known for playing a prominent role in the recapture of the al-Faw peninsula during the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s, he became armed forces chief of staff in 1999, was considered "very loyal to Saddam Hussein" and was thought to be close to the Iraqi president's son Qusay, said another US official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Twenty of the 55 on the list had been apprehended, with three others dead, the defence official said.

Only one other captured official from Saddam's former government ranks higher on the US most-wanted list -- Air Defence Force Commander Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al Tikriti, who was No 10 on the list and was taken into custody on April 23, according to US Central Command.

Taha is married to former Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed, who surrendered to US forces on April 28. Ranked 47 on the US list, he ran Iraq's military industries until becoming oil minister in 1995. Taha is not on the list.

"She has a background in biological weapons, and so that is obviously important to us," said Maj. Brad Lowell, a spokesman for Central Command, which described her as "former director of the Iraqi bacterial/biological programme".

Officials indicated that Taha surrendered to US forces, but did not provide details.

The announcement of her apprehension came a week after it was disclosed a second Iraqi female scientist linked to Saddam's biological weapons programme had been apprehended. American-educated microbiologist Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, the only woman on the US list of most-wanted Iraqis, is known by the nickname "Mrs. Anthrax."

The United States accused Saddam's government of possessing large stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, and cited those arms as a key justification for war. US search teams have not found any such weapons.

Taha has admitted producing germ warfare agents in the past, including anthrax and botulinum. She has said all such Iraqi weapons were destroyed.

Biological weapons are living micro-organisms and biological toxins harnessed deliberately to kill or sicken others.

UN weapons investigators tagged her with the nickname "Dr. Germ" based on her work in germ warfare agents.

In an interview this year with ABC News, Taha said her work helped protect Iraqis from Israel. "We haven't done anything to harm other people. It is our right to be capable enough to defend ourselves -- all what we have done is just a deterrent."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq