Iraq

Millions to pour into rebuilding

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, announced plans Tuesday to create a $100-million construction fund to increase the pace of rebuilding and provide work. Much of the money is being drawn from a $4-billion stash of frozen assets and confiscated loot once belonging to ousted President Saddam Hussein and his cronies.

The remainder is coming from international donors, the U.N. oil-for-food program and U.S. taxpayers, who are covering the cost of keeping military forces in Iraq and launching the initial round of reconstruction work, officials said.

NEW YORK - Saddam Hussein has been seen north of Baghdad and is paying a bounty for every American soldier killed, the leader of an Iraqi exile group said Tuesday.

Hussein has $1.3-billion in cash taken from the Central Bank on March 18, is bent on revenge and believes he can "sit it out and get the Americans going," said Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said they had no information that Hussein was alive and offering bounties for killing U.S. troops.

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces have captured two more of the 55 most wanted Iraqis, including a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

Latif Nusayyif al-Jasim al-Dulaymi, No. 18 on the top 55 list, was a former member of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council, the small committee of the former dictator's top advisers, and a former deputy secretary of the Baath Party's military bureau.

The second man captured was a top official in the chemical weapons corps of the Iraqi military. Brig. Gen. Husayn al-Awadi, No. 53 on the most-wanted list, also was a regional Baath Party leader in the Ninawa region.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright