Monday, February 28, 2005

Six of Diamonds handed over by Syria

Syria handed over a highly wanted half-brother of Saddam Hussein who is suspected of funding and planning the post-war insurgency, Iraqi sources say.

Iraq's government announced the capture of the former Saddam Hussein aide Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti.

Iraq did not comment on Syria's role but the Iraqi sources said Damascus had acted under international pressure.

[...]

"The Syrian authorities, because of the tremendous pressure on them, did something about Ibrahim," a source described as a "senior government official" told Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity in Baghdad.

"Having so many problems on their plate at the moment, the Syrians were willing partners in this, but the Americans and we were also involved."

BBC correspondent Jim Muir notes the Iraqi government is neither confirming nor denying the reports for now.

If Syria has indeed handed him over, he adds, it could represent a major climbdown by Damascus which has consistently claimed that such people are not operating from its soil.

[...]

Thair al-Naqib, a spokesman for the Iraqi government, said Mr Tikriti had been arrested "on the Syrian-Iraqi borders".

Speaking to Arabic TV channel al-Arabiya, he added that details of the capture would be released to the media "soon".
  BBC News article

Syria shouldn't think this might appease the U.S. and prevent an attack by USIsrael. No efforts of man will stop that. Unless Syria would like to buy into the debtor program.
The Iraqi officials did not specify when al-Hassan was captured, only saying he was detained after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon, in a blast that killed 16 others.

[...]

Capt. Ahmed Ismael, an Iraqi intelligence officer, said al-Hassan was handed to the Iraqis Sunday. Another Iraqi official said Syrian security forces expelled al-Hassan after he and his supporters had been turned back in an earlier attempt to cross the Syrian border into Lebanon and Jordan.
  ABC article

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