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Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, was captured by the US Special Forces on Thursday, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters at the Qatar-based headquarters of the US Central Command.
Barzan was an "adviser" to Saddam and was also an "insider" who had "extensive knowledge of the regime's workings," Brooks said at a press briefing.
Barzan, Iraqi's former permanent delegate to the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, ranks 38th in the most wanted list in form a deck of 55 cards, in which Saddam is the ace of spades.
It was reported that another half brother of Saddam, Watban Ibrahim Hasan, was arrested on Sunday by the US forces in Rabia near the Iraqi-Syrian border when he attempted to cross the border.
Watban, Barzan's full brother, once served as interior minister and in other sensitive capacities in Saddam's regime.
The United States expected that the key figures of Saddam's regime could provide information on suspected weapons of mass destruction program, an excuse the United States and Britain have employed to justify the war on Iraq.
However, the US-led forces have found no concrete evidence so far that Iraq possesses the banned weapons.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2003)
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