BAGHDAD (AP):
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S wife and eldest daughter - along with the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq - are among 41 people on the Iraqi government's most wanted list, a top official announced yesterday.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, also said the former al-Qaida in Iraq boss, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been buried in a "secret location" in Baghdad. Al-Zarqawi died June 7 in a U.S. air strike north-east of Baghdad.
Al-Rubaie told reporters that the government was releasing the most wanted list "so that our people can know their enemies."
Saddam's wife, Sajida Khairallah Tulfah, who is said to be living in Qatar, was No. 17 on the list just behind his eldest daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein.
Jordan's Prime Minister Marouf Al-Bakhit said yesterday that Raghad Saddam Hussein and her children have been given refuge there for humanitarian reasons and are the guests of his country's royal family.
Also on the wanted list is Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, formerly Saddam's top lieutenant and the highest-ranking regime figure to have eluded capture. The U.S. has offered US$10 million for al-Douri, who was alleged to have been among the key organisers of the insurgency.
BAATH LOYALISTS
Although U.S. and Iraqi officials often draw attention to religious extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq in the insurgency, most of the figures on the list were closely linked to Saddam's regime, including former Baath party officials, intelligence officials and Republican Guard officers.
No. 30 on the list was Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, who was endorsed by Osama bin Laden as leader of al-Qaida's operations in Iraq in an audio tape posted Saturday on the Internet.
