The US soldiers swooped at 8am, fanning out along the embankment then storming the luxury riverside estate of their prey — the queen of spades on America’s list of the 55 most wanted officials of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The dozen or so troops burst into a huge, square room encircled by two tiers of internal balconies. They were face to face with their target: the tribal chieftain with the shining sword galloping across an oil canvas; the moustachioed man in the black beret in the official photograph with Saddam; the haughty Iraqi general in ceremonial sash portrayed in the 40ft fresco.
But Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi, whose atrocities include the annihilation of an entire culture (the Marsh Arabs who had lived for centuries between the Tigris and the Euphrates), was gone.
His palatial home, on the western bank of the Tigris, a mile down the road from the looted home of the deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, had been plundered, and the only remembrance of Zubeidi was a pair of olive-green trousers with gold braid lying in a heap on the floor.
The US soldiers were too late. Zubeidi, like Saddam and nearly all of the members of his inner circle, had vanished days if not weeks before, and his stripped-down home — even the fuse box had been emptied by the mobs on Thursday — offered no clues to his whereabouts.
But his status was clear. As the queen of spades on the packs of cards that have been handed out to US soldiers to help them find the villains of the regime, Zubeidi ranks among Saddam’s most dangerous allies — with the aces and kings of each suit reserved for his sons, Qusay and Uday, his half-brothers and first cousins.
Torturer
Human rights organisations say Zubeidi, a former member of the Revolutionary Command Council of the ruling Ba’ath party who has served as the Iraqi prime minister, oversaw the clearance of the southern marshes and the killing and expulsion of tens of thousands of people. He also played a central role in crushing the Shia revolt against the regime in 1991.
”He is a devil. He tortured people and he shot people. He is responsible for many crimes,” said one of Zubeidi’s guards, locking up after the looters.
Yesterday’s raid exposes the difficulties in tracking down the Iraqis on America’s most wanted list. Six days after the fall of the regime, there is no trace of Saddam (aka the ace of spades), a deeply unsettling notion for Iraqis who fear that until he ends up in American custody, or dead, he could turn up any day.
The fate of his cronies is also unclear — although the sighting of a number of abandoned bulletproof Mercedes around Baghdad suggest some had difficulty in getting away. Saddam’s half brother, Barzan, is believed to have been killed in a US strike on his home in Ramadi, about 95 kilometres west of Baghdad, and there are reports that the Iraqi leader drew a gun and shot dead his army chief, Ibrahim al-Sattar Mohammed, a few days before the battle for Baghdad got under way.
Saddam’s departure after 30 years of iron rule was so sudden that it encouraged Iraqis’ instinct for caution.
Seven other homes of senior Iraqi officials — all featured on the list, and all living within two kilometres or so of Zubeidi — were abandoned yesterday and had been looted by the mobs.
The neighbours offered few leads. ”I have lived here for 30 years, and I only ever saw them in passing,” said Mustafa Moud, who lives on a road leading off the corniche housing Watban Hasan, Saddam’s half brother and the five of spades, Qusay Hussein, Saddam’s heir and the ace of clubs, and Ibrahim Izzat Douri, Saddam’s lieutenant and the king of clubs.
Success
”Being far from them was always better for us,” said a man who moved into the area in 1975, well ahead of his neighbour to the right, Taha Muhyi al-Din Maruf, a vice-president and the nine of diamonds. ”They put up these high walls so we couldn’t see them.”
At the home of Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, designated the five of hearts for her expertise in chemical warfare and the most senior woman in the Iraqi regime, burly men stood at the gates.
”Please leave this area immediately. She has left,” said one, who gave his name as Khadim Iraqi — or ”servant of Iraq”. ”She is fighting in the streets like every Ba’athi. She is fighting with arms against the rebels.”
A shadow moved across one of the windows, and the guards moved protectively towards the gate. ”Every Iraqi will defend Saddam Hussein — even if he is dead,” said one.
Despite the odds, the US forces scored one success at the weekend when General Amer al-Saadi, the urbane tennis enthusiast who headed Iraq’s chemical and biological warfare programme for years, turned himself over to a German television crew.
Yesterday, it was unclear what motivated Gen al-Saadi. He told reporters on Saturday that being on the US wanted list — at number 55 — was a mistake because Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Neither did he bother to bring his heart medication when he went into captivity, suggesting he believed he would be swiftly released.
”He has nothing to hide,” his sister, Suhaila Saadi, said yesterday. ”He has always told the truth.” – Guardian Unlimited Â