Iraq

Baath official caught; 10 on list still free

BAGHDAD - A special Iraqi police unit arrested a senior Baath Party leader on the U.S. military's most-wanted list during a raid Sunday on his home in a Baghdad suburb.

The capture of Mohammed Zimam Abdul Razaq leaves only 10 top figures still at large from the list of 55 issued after the Saddam Hussein regime fell. Abdul Razaq was No. 41, and the four of spades in the military's "deck of cards" of top fugitives.

Abdul Razaq once headed Saddam's Baath Party in the northern provinces of Nineveh and Tamim, which include the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. He earlier served as interior minister, and Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Kadhum Ibrahim said he kept a "personal prison" behind the police academy where "innocent people" were held in dog cages.

BAGHDAD - Two U.S. convoys were attacked nearly simultaneously Sunday in the same western neighborhood in Baghdad. A roadside bomb went off by one of the convoys, causing no injuries. But the soldiers opened fire, killing one Iraqi driver nearby and wounding six others, according to one of the victims and hospital officials.

Nearby, gunmen opened fire on another convoy, hitting a civilian sport utility vehicle. The U.S. command reported no casualties, but witnesses reported seeing three wounded foreigners being taken from the vehicle.

In Qaim, near the Syrian border about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, U.S. troops backed by tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles clashed Sunday with Iraqi gunmen, but there was no report of casualties.

HUSSEIN'S STATUS: Iraq will ask the United States to remove Saddam Hussein's status as a prisoner of war and hand him over to Iraqis for trial, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Kuwait.

PROTESTS IN SPAIN: Thousands of protesters demanding an end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq took to the streets in downtown Madrid and other Spanish cities. At Madrid's Plaza Espana square, police said about 10,000 people rallied, while organizers put the number at 100,000.

World and national headlines

© 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