SADDAM HUSSEIN’S half-brother, one of the most wanted men in Iraq who is suspected of financing and directing insurgents from exile in Syria, was handed over to Iraq by Syria yesterday.

The revelation that Syria was responsible for capturing Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan emerged late yesterday after officials in Baghdad initially claimed the triumph for themselves.

Two senior Iraqi officials in Cairo said al-Hassan, wanted for his role in the insurgency and his senior position in the former regime, had been detained after the assassination on February 14 of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, in Beirut.

“The capture appeared to be a goodwill gesture by the Syrians to show that they are co-operating,” one official said.

He added that al-Hassan was handed over to the Iraqi authorities along with 29 other members of Saddam’s collapsed Baath Party, whose Syrian branch has been in power in Damascus since 1963.

The Iraqi Government claimed al-Hassan’s arrest would deal a severe blow to the insurgency by cutting off its funding. It also emphasised its commitment to punishing members of the former regime as preparations continue for the first batch of trials next month, when the defendants will include Saddam’s two other half-brothers, Barzan and Watban.

His role as head of the dreaded General Security Directorate put al-Hassan at number 36 on the American list of the 55 most wanted members of the toppled regime. He later had a $1 million bounty on his head for his alleged funding of the insurgency.

Until his capture early yesterday, he was one of only 12 on the original most-wanted list still at large.

Al-Hassan is the first from that list to be detained for more than a year as the focus has shifted from tracking down former regime members to battling the mainly Sunni insurgency still raging in the centre of the country.

As the former head of internal security, al-Hassan stands accused of the torture and killing of his half-brother’s political opponents as he cracked down brutally on internal dissent. He later became a presidential adviser, the last post he held in the former regime. In December, Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, claimed he was one of two top former Baathists who were funding the insurgency from exile in Syria and lambasted its Government for giving them safe haven.

The Government said his capture “shows the determination of the Iraq Government to chase and detain all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people, then bring them to justice to face the right punishment”.

It added that he had “killed and tortured Iraqi people” and “participated effectively in planning, supervising, and carrying out many terrorist acts in Iraq”.

Syria’s apparent decision to hand al-Hassan over came on the back of increasingly vocal criticism of Syria by the Iraqi Government. It accuses its neighbour of harbouring key insurgency leaders and former regime members.

Last week, state television broadcast what it said were the confessions of foreign militants who had received their training in Syria before joining the insurgency in Iraq. Security forces claimed to have caught a number of Syrian fighters in recent days, including three arrested this weekend who were said to have confessed to membership of the insurgency Ansar al-Sunnah army.

Iraqi security officials this weekend also boasted that they were closing in on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian insurgent mastermind said to be al-Qaeda’s point man in Iraq.

On Friday, the Government announced the capture of Abu Qutaybah, said to be a key lieutenant to the Jordanian, responsible for some of the insurgency’s bloodiest and most spectacular attacks. He was reportedly captured on February 20 close to the Syrian border.

But American Marines scouring the vast western desert where al-Zarqawi is believed to be hiding said he remained as elusive as ever.

“There is no pinpoint accuracy as to where he’s at, just rumours,” Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Stevens, the Marines’ commander, said. “He’s a ghost out there. He has nine lives, he’s very slippery and very well protected, and he certainly isn’t stupid.”

STILL MISSING FROM THE COALITION’S PACK OF CARDS

With the capture of Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, the half-brother of Saddam Hussein, right, there are ten former members of the Iraqi dictator’s regime on the 55 most-wanted list who remain at large:

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri: Saddam Hussein’s former deputy and vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. The most wanted former Baathist still at large

Hani Abd Latif Tilfah al-Tikriti: Special Security Organisation director

Sayf al-Din Fulayyih Hassan Taha al-Rawi: Republican Guard chief of staff

Rafi Abd Latif al-Tilfah: the Director of General Security

Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti: Iraqi Intelligence Service director

Rukan Razuki Abd al-Ghaful Sulayman al-Tikriti: Chief of Tribal Affairs

Abd al-Baqi Abd Karim al-Sadun: Baath Party chairman and commander of Baath Party Militia, Baghdad

Yahya Abdallah al-Ubeidi: Baath Party chairman and commander of Baath Party Militia, Basra Governorate

Rashid Taan Kazim: Baath Party chairman and commander of Baath Party Militia, Anbar Governorate

Nayif Shindakh Thamir: Baath Party chairman and commander of Baath Party Militia, Salah al-Din Governorate

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