AMERICAN commanders have dampened expectations of a conclusive hunt for members of the former Iraqi regime by emphasising that an unknown number are probably dead.

The capture at the weekend of Hikmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi, Saddam Hussein’s former Finance Minister, and Humam Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafur, the former Scientific Research and Education Minister, takes the tally held to six, leaving 49 figures remaining in the pack of cards of “Iraq’s most-wanted”.

Despite trumpeting the co-operation of some of the detainees, the search for the fugitives – like the hunt for weapons of mass destruction – has left the searchers holding a weak hand.

Central Command in Qatar moved yesterday to address growing doubts about the success of the operation by revealing that American special forces, who are leading the manhunt, had strong intelligence that many of the names on the list had been killed in coalition attacks. “We have information which points to the fact that many of them are dead,” a spokesman said.

“We will not be in a position to reveal which ones until we are 100 per cent sure. We are happy with the arrests we have made — each one is a small victory. But the manhunt is only one part of what we are doing in Iraq.”

Al-Azzawi (No 45) and al-Ghafur (No 54) join four other captives:

• Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (No 52), a half-brother of Saddam who is now reported to be “singing like a canary” under CIA interrogation;
• Samir abd al-Aziz al-Najim (No 24), the regional chairman of the Baath party in east Baghdad;
• Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (No 51), another of Saddam’s half-brothers; and
• Amer Hammoudi Hasan al-Saadi (No 55) Saddam’s top scientific adviser.

  The long-exiled Iraqi National Congress said yesterday that Saddam’s son-in-law, Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, No 40 on the US list, had surrendered to them and would be handed over to coalition forces. Central Command in Kuwait could not confirm the report.

  Emad Husayn Abdullah al-Ani, who is accused of being behind Saddam’s nerve agent programme but is not on the list, turned himself in to US forces on Saturday. In 1998 American officials accused al-Ani of involvement with a chemical plant in Sudan supposedly linked with Osama bin Laden, which was bombed on the orders of President Clinton.

  The fate of the strongest cards – headed by Saddam (the ace of spades) and his two sons, Uday (ace of hearts) and Qusay (ace of clubs) – remains unknown.

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