IRAQ: Iraq's former defence minister, one of the 55 most wanted officials of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, surrendered yesterday to US forces in the northern city of Mosul.
Sultan Hashim Ahmed, who turned himself in after weeks of negotiation, was number 27 on Washington's list of wanted top-ranking officials from Saddam's regime, and was the eight of hearts in the pack of playing-cards used by US troops to identify those at the heart of Saddam's circle.
Forty on the list have so far been killed or captured as the hunt for Saddam continues.
An official from Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority said: "Every time we get to chalk off another person on the list we get a little closer to Saddam. We're gathering a lot of useful intelligence on his whereabouts."
Although Ahmed's arrest will come as boost for US forces after another night of violence in which three soldiers were killed in an ambush near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, Ahmed was a relatively minor figure in Saddam's government.
A general in the Iraqi military during the first Gulf War who helped negotiate Iraq's surrender to the allied forces, he was a deeply loyal but unambitious figure favoured by Saddam.
He was last seen in footage showing the former president waving to crowds, said to have been filmed in Baghdad on April 9th, the same day US forces entered the city.
Like many on the list of wanted officials, Ahmed appears to have been in the tribal areas north of Baghdad, fuelling speculation that Saddam may be nearby.
In July, Saddam's sons, Qusay and Uday Hussein, were killed in a shoot-out on the outskirts of Mosul, and so-called "Chemical Ali", a cousin of Saddam and a general in his army, was arrested in the area last month.
The latest ambush on coalition forces at Tikrit has brought to 76 the number of US solders killed since the end of the war.