The United States soldiers swooped at 8am, fanning out along the embankment then storming the luxury riverside estate of their prey — the queen of spades on the US’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 a 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, 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 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 the dictator’s sons, Qusay and Uday, his half-brothers and first cousins.
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.
The raid exposes the difficulties in tracking down the Iraqis on the US’s most wanted list. 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 US 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 Ramad, 96km 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 a kilometre or so of Zubeidi — were abandoned and had been looted by the mobs.
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 Ibraham Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother and the five of spades; Qusay Saddam Hussein, Saddam’s heir and the ace of clubs; and Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam’s lieutenant and the king of clubs.
”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 Mohieddin Ma’rouf, 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 (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,” one said.
Despite the odds, the US forces scored a success last weekend when General Amir al-Sadi, the urbane tennis enthusiast who headed Iraq’s chemical and biological warfare programme for years, turned himself over to a German television crew.
It was unclear what motivated the general. He told reporters that being on the US wanted list — at No 55 — was a mistake because Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. He did not 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 Sadi, said. ”He has always told the truth.”
Meanwhile, report Michael Howard and Rory McCarthy, US forces in Mosul in northern Iraq believe they are close to negotiating the surrender of two members of Saddam’s regime.
US special operations forces suspect that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, vice-chairman of the revolutionary command council and northern regional commander, and General Sultan Hashim Ahmed, Saddam’s minister of defence, may be ready to give themselves up along with other leading members of the Ba’athist regime. The two men are sixth and 19th respectively on the US most wanted list of Iraqis. Both come from Mosul.
Colonel Robert Waltemeyer, who leads the US operation in Mosul, declined to confirm the negotiation, but said: ”We want to provide every opportunity for former members of their regime to offer their formal surrender.”
Since the US forces arrived at the weekend, after 24 hours of looting and communal tension, a stream of former Ba’ath Party, military and intelligence officials have been coming forward with information about the whereabouts of leadership figures.
At a meeting this week at Mosul airport, the temporary headquarters for several hundred US special forces and marines, six former Iraqi military and intelligence officials asked the US for protection in return for information.
”It was something of a test. Some of the former regime officials are not monsters and they may be willing to help rebuild Iraq,” said former general Ali Jajawi, who was a central figure in persuading Mosul officials last week to leave their posts ahead of what they believed would be an imminent US entrance into the city.
Waltemeyer said the coalition was interested in information about weapons of mass destruction, terrorist links and Iraq’s Fifth Army Corps, which seems to have vanished into the back streets of Mosul.
Charges against Iraq’s most wanted men:
Since Ali Hassan al-Majid, otherwise known as Chemical Ali, is presumed dead, and Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother and former minister of the interior who allegedly beat to death a victim who had driven through a red traffic light, was reportedly captured near the northern town of Mosul on Sunday, these are the nine names likely to head the most wanted list.
They include those targeted by both the United States and Indict, a British organisation that has collected evidence of crimes committed by leaders of the Iraqi regime.
Saddam Hussein: President of Iraq since 1979. Invaded Iran and Kuwait. Authorised the development of chemical weapons. There are witness statements saying he personally shot batches of Kurdish prisoners with a Browning pistol.
Uday Hussein: Saddam’s 38-year-old son. Commander of Saddam Fedayeen forces and head of Iraq’s National Olympic Committee. Believed to have tortured
victims using electric shocks and to have ordered people to be killed in acid baths.
Qusay Hussein: Saddam’s younger son, but his chosen successor. In charge of the Special Republican Guard and Iraqi intelligence and security services. Alleged to have selected prisoners for execution; once supervised mass killings where inmates were dropped into a machine used for shredding plastic.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri: Vice-chairman of the revolutionary command council and military commander of the northern region of Iraq. Oversaw the mass execution of detainees, according to survivors, including one occasion when 170 people were shot in a day.
Tariq Aziz: Deputy prime minister and member of the revolutionary command council. Accused of shooting disgraced members of the Ba’ath regime. Said to have been informed in advance of the nerve gas attack on Halabja in 1988 that killed 5 000 people.
Mohammad Hamza Zubeidi: Former prime minister and deputy prime minister. Responsible for atrocities against Shia population in southern Iraq. Filmed beating rebels. Oversaw destruction of the southern marshes.
Aziz Salih al-Numan: Army commander during the 1990/91 occupation of Kuwait. Governor of Nassiriya. Said to have personally overseen summary execution of those who took part in Shia uprising in the city after the first Gulf War.
Abed Hamoud al-Tikriti:Personal secretary who controlled access to the president. Frequently at Saddam’s side. Said to have directed the daily matters of state and to have handed down many of the regime’s repressive orders.
Taha Yasin Ramadan: Vice-president, deputy prime minister. Commanded army during occupation of Kuwait. Had prior knowledge of the Halabja gas attack. Allegedly shot prisoners who were partly buried but still insulting Saddam. — Â