WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Two more high-level Iraqi officials are in U.S. custody, Pentagon officials confirmed Monday, bringing the number of captured leaders and others of interest to 23.
Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al-Sattar Muhammed al-Tikriti was Saddam Hussein's armed forces chief of staff and is No. 11 on the U.S. list of 55 "most wanted" Iraqis.
Rihab Taha, known as "Dr. Germ" in the Western media, is not on the "most wanted" list, but is of interest because she is credited with being the architect of Iraq's biological weapons program. In an interview with ABC News in February she said all of the weapons had been destroyed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
A senior Pentagon official told United Press International the "most wanted" list began as a list of regime leaders the U.S. government invited to leave Iraq prior to the war. Their leaving would have amounted to "regime change" without any military action.
The list is now a guide to the top leaders most sought by U.S. forces. However, there is another list of some 200 Iraqis who have valuable information for the coalition and U.S. government, he said.
Taha did not make the most-wanted list because she had been out of government power for several years. Her husband, Amir Rashid Muhammed al Ubaydi, an expert on weapons-delivery systems and Saddam's oil minister, surrendered to U.S. officials last month.
Those in custody include:
Muzahim Sab Hassan al-Tikriti -- Air Defense Force commander, No. 10;
Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh -- Office of Military Industrialization director, No. 16;
Mohammed Hazmaq al-Zubeidi -- a Baath Party commander and a former deputy prime minister, No. 18;
Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib -- the former director of military intelligence and No. 21;
Samir Abd al-Aziz al-Najm -- Baath Party chairman and commander of Baath Party militia, No. 24;
Ghazi Hammud al-Ubaydi, former Baath Party Regional Command Chairman for the al-Kut district, No. 32;
Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti -- deputy chief of tribal affairs, No. 40;
Taha Muhyl al-Din Maruf -- vice president and Revolutionary Command Council member, No. 42;
Tariq Aziz -- deputy prime minister, No. 43;
Walid Hamid Tawfiq al-Tikriti -- governor of Basra, No. 44;
Hikmat al-Azzawi -- deputy prime minister, economics and finance minister, No. 45;
Amir Rashid Muhammad al-Ubaydi -- oil minister, No. 47;
Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih -- the former minister of trade and No. 48;
Husam Muhammad al-Yasin -- the National Monitoring Director, No. 49;
Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti -- Baath party leader, Saddam's half-brother, No. 51;
Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti -- Baath Party official, Saddam Hussein's half-brother, No. 52;
Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, party youth and trade bureau chairman; also "Mrs. Anthrax," a key figure in the alleged biological weapons program, No. 53;
Humam Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafur -- minister of higher education and scientific research, No. 54;
Amir Hamudi Hasan al-Sadi -- Saddam's chief scientific adviser, No. 55;
Farouk Hijazi, the former director of external operations for Iraqi intelligence and a former ambassador to both Tunisia and Turkey believed by the U.S. government to have helped plan the failed 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H.W. Bush. Not on the list; and
Salim Said Khalaf al-Jumaylii in Baghdad. Al-Jumaylii is the former chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service on the American Desk, not on the list.
