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US issues Iraq insurgents wanted list
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-18 09:23 The U.S. military on Tuesday
issued for the first time a wanted list of dozens of key figures suspected of
leading the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq, including a $1 million reward for a
senior Baath Party figure believed to be running guerrilla cells.
In Tikrit, three Iraqis, including a 10-year-old, were killed Tuesday when a
120 mm mortar fired by U.S. soldiers landed on their house. The U.S. base at
Tikrit has been receiving fire from insurgents over the past few nights, the
military said.
The list of 32 wanted people included suspected cell leaders, former members
of Saddam Hussein's military and regional Baath leaders thought to be helping
the insurgency, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations chief.
At the top of the list, with a $1 million reward, is Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmad,
a former top Baath Party official. Rewards between $50,000 and $200,000 were
offered for the others.
"He is one of the former (regime) personnel we suspect of significant
anti-coalition activities," Kimmitt said of al-Ahmad. "We have reason to believe
he has been running cells in certain parts of this country."
The military has been compiling the list as it built up a better
understanding of the insurgency, Kimmitt told reporters. "Some names keep
popping up," he said.
Soon after Saddam's ouster in April, the military published a list of 55
most-wanted members of his regime. All but 10 of them have been captured or
killed. Not all were believed to have played major roles in the insurgency.
Until now, U.S. officials have not made public a list of suspected leaders of
the insurgency that erupted after the regime's collapse and has killed more
American soldiers than did the invasion that toppled Saddam. The violence,
blamed on Saddam loyalists and foreign Islamic militants, has persisted despite
the Iraqi leader's capture in December.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded by roadside bombs in Baghdad
and two cities to the north on Monday, the military announced. Four U.S.
soldiers were wounded and one insurgent was killed Monday in a firefight that
ended in the arrest of a suspected cell leader and eight others, the military
said. The cell leader was not on the list released Tuesday.
The latest U.S. deaths brought to 541 the number of American service members
who have died since U.S. President Bush launched the war March 20.
Guerrillas have carried out a series of bloody attacks over the past week
targeting Iraqi civilians and police, apparently seeking to derail U.S. plans to
hand over power to a provisional Iraqi government on June 30.
At the same time, U.S. administrators are facing mounting opposition to their
plan to use regional caucuses to put together the new government. The method was
losing support on the Iraqi Governing Council, several council members said.
"This system is alien to us," said Naseer Kamel al-Chaderchi, a Sunni Muslim.
"It's based on city councils, and the integrity of these councils is in
question."
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish Sunni member of the council, agreed that the caucus
plan has little support. He said the Americans could simply hand over
sovereignty to the Governing Council but most Iraqis wouldn't accept it because
the body was appointed by the United States.
Othman said he preferred a second option, holding "a national conference with
the wide participation of political and religious figures" to produce a
provisional leadership.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that the United States
remains committed to giving the Iraqi people control of their country by July 1
but is open to ideas from the United Nations about how an interim
government is chosen.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday he hopes to report this week
on whether the United Nations believes it's possible to hold elections to pick a
new government by June 30. If he decides a vote isn't possible — as appears
likely — he is expected to recommend other possible options.
The military's new most wanted list set new rankings of rewards for the
fugitives. A $200,000 reward was set for 11 former regional military and
political leaders from Saddam regime suspected of "associating" or "providing
support" to insurgent cells, Kimmitt said.
Among the 11 was Lt. Gen. Hakam Hassan Ali al-Tikriti, a former commander of
the military's helicopter forces and an adviser to the Iraqi General Staff
during the U.S. invasion.
Rewards of $50,000 were offered for 20 "individual operatives in local
terrorist cells," he said.
"These people have been targets for quite a period of time," he said. "We
have now offered significant amounts of money for their capture."
The United States has also placed a $10 million bounty on al-Qaeda-linked
operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian blamed for a series of devastating
car bombs that U.S. officials say were aimed at fomenting civil war.
On Monday, U.S. troops launched a raid south of the city of Fallujah hunting
for two suspected cell leaders. The raid sparked a gunbattle in which one Iraqi
guerrilla was killed and nine others were captured, including one of the
suspects. The two men were not on the newly issued list.
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