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'Wanted' Iraqi General captured

QATAR APRIL 27. The U.S.-led forces said today that they were holding Gen. Hussam Mohammad Amin al-Yasin, head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate and a key figure in U.N. weapons inspections.

The Central Command here said that he was "under coalition control" but gave no details. Gen. Amin, whose agency monitored Iraq's armaments, was a familiar figure in the international media during the U.N. inspections before the U.S.-led invasion last month. He was No. 49 on a U.S. list of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's administration and the six of clubs in a deck of cards issued to U.S. troops hunting Iraqi leaders.

The Central Command said four U.S. soldiers were injured when their vehicles were ambushed in downtown Baghdad. The soldiers were travelling in two vehicles which were stopped in traffic when an assailant approached and fired at them from a small calibre weapon.

Nerve gas found?

The U.S. troops found about a dozen 55-gallon drums in an open field near Baiji, a northern Iraqi town, and initial tests indicated that one of them contained a mixture of nerve gas and mustard gas, an American officer said today. Lt.Col. Ted Martin of the 10th Cavalry Regiment said troops went to the site on Friday night after being alerted by U.S. Special Forces teams, which were suspicious because of the presence of surface-to-air missiles guarding the area.

A chemical team checked the drums, one of which tested positive for cyclosarin, a nerve agent, and a blister agent, which could have been mustard gas.

An Iraqi exile who proclaimed himself Baghdad's mayor and begun issuing directives to city workers was arrested today by the U.S. forces, who accused him of exerting authority he did not have. — Reuters, AP

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