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Fugitive Palestine leader held in Baghdad
Abu Abbas
The U.S. forces hailed the capture of Abu Abbas, the Palestinian who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise liner, Achille Lauro, as a proof that Saddam Hussein's regime "harboured terrorists". The U.S. said they had achieved "yet another victory in the global war on terrorism" with Abbas' capture.
Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, who was living in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein, was seized when U.S. troops stormed his hideout in southern Baghdad on Monday, U.S. officials said.
His presence there proved that the Iraqi regime supported terrorism, said Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks.
"He was a terrorist and remains a terrorist... But more importantly, he was found in Baghdad and we have said for a long time that Baghdad and the Iraqi regime that no longer exists have harboured terrorists and provided safe haven for terrorists."
Abbas was sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms for his role in the hijacking.
Pipeline shut down
Stepping up pressure on Syria, the U.S. shut down a pipeline used for "illegally" transporting oil from Iraq to Syria but said it was not certain whether all flow of the oil between the two countries had stopped.
Talking to presspersons in Washington, the U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said the pipeline was not bombed by coalition forces during the war in an effort to preserve Iraq's infrastructure but the flow of oil through it had now been cut off to "block revenue from it benefiting any remaining members of Saddam Hussein's Government who have been fleeing to Syria".
"I am hopeful that they have shut it off, and I have heard that has happened," he said on Tuesday when asked about reports from Iraq that the U.S. military had shut the pipeline.
"(But) I cannot assure you that all illegal oil flowing from Iraq to Syria is shut off. I just hope it is," he added.
Meanwhile, Washington has said that a man suspected of plotting to kill the former President, George Bush, in 1993 had been spotted in Damascus.
A U.S. official said Faruq Hijazi, a suspected high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer, had reached Syria from Tunisia, apparently to seek refuge after Mr. Hussein's regime was toppled.
Washington believes he played a key role in an alleged plot to assassinate the senior Bush during a visit to Kuwait, which was freed from Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf war.
Syria's denial
Syria today again rejected the U.S. accusations that it was harbouring members of the Iraqi regime on the run from the U.S.-led coalition.
And in response to the allegations that it possessed chemical weapons, Damascus said it would submit a resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for the Middle East to be free of weapons of mass destruction.
"Allegations of Syria providing refuge to some symbols of the Iraqi regime are absolutely groundless," said Bussaina Shaaban, director of the Ministry's information department.
"Syria never had good relations with the Iraqi regime, and in fact there were many operations done against our citizens by the Iraqi regime in the past, and so these kinds of allegations are absolutely groundless," she added.
The U.S. troops on their hunt for illegal weapons and fugitive members of Mr. Hussein's inner circle raided the home of a scientist dubbed "Dr. Germ" by U.N. weapons inspectors.
The U.S. special forces, backed by about 40 Marines armed with heavy-calibre machine guns, raided the home of Rahib Taha, a microbiologist nicknamed "Dr. Germ" by weapons inspectors.
In today's clashes in Mosul, at least four persons were killed and several others wounded by gunshots near Government buildings, a hospital official said. Several witnesses told AFP that U.S. troops fired on a crowd from the rooftops of the buildings, but a U.S. Marine officer denied the charge.
Child operated upon
Meanwhile, Ali Ismail Abbas, who lost both his hands in the bombing, underwent surgery after being evacuated with other maimed children to Kuwait by the U.S. military.
"All his family is dead," his uncle Mohammad al-Sultani told presspersons as the boy was wheeled into a specialised burns unit. — AFP, AP
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