Most wanted/another arrest: The US military on Sunday announced the capture of the Iraqi official who was in charge of liaising with UN weapons inspectors, as hundreds of the country's aspiring political leaders prepared for a key meeting in Baghdad on Iraq's future.
The talks between the would-be leaders and the retired US general currently running Iraq come amid mounting fury among ordinary Iraqis over the absence of basic services in the country and uncertainty over the shape of its future government.
The capture of Gen Hossam Mohammad Amin, former head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, brings to 13 the number of Iraqis seized from the US list of the 55 most wanted officials from the regime.
Amin was in charge of liaising with the UN weapons inspectors who were in Iraq to scrutinise the extent of Iraqi co-operation with UN Security Council resolutions for Baghdad to disarm.
As the US continued its drive to round up former officials from Saddam's regime, between 300 and 400 Iraqi leaders from across the political spectrum were expected in Baghdad today to meet Gen Jay Garner, the retired US general running post-war Iraq.
Barbara Bodine, the US administrator for central Iraq, said that the meeting was a chance to look for "emerging personalities" who could lead the Iraqi people in the future.
- (AFP)
US forces seized the self-declared mayor of post-war Baghdad yesterday for exercising authority he did not have, prompting an angry reaction from his supporters who demanded his immediate release. US Central Command in Qatar said Mr Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, who proclaimed himself mayor of the capital earlier this month, had been obstructing efforts to rebuild Iraq following the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
"Zubaidi was detained and then removed from Baghdad to prevent his continued misrepresentation of his authority as the mayor of Baghdad in the aftermath of the regime's defeat," Central Command said in a statement.
Mr Zubaidi had said he was elected by people representing clerics, academics, Shia and Sunni Muslims, Christians, writers and journalists, although he did not clarify how or when a vote took place or who organised it.
He set up 22 committees to function in place of ministries, including health, education, water, electricity and industry, prompting widespread confusion about who was actually in charge of the Iraqi capital.
Officials in the US civil administration for Iraq, led by retired general Jay Garner, repeatedly said they did not recognise Zubaidi's authority.