Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News Staff

BAGHDAD, 16 February 2004 — A special unit of Iraqi police arrested a senior Baath Party leader who was No. 41 on the US military’s list of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime in a raid yesterday on his home in a Baghdad suburb.

The capture of Mohammed Zimam Abdul Razaq leaves only 10 top Saddam-era figures still at large from the list, issued by the US military after the regime fell.

Deputy Minister Ahmed Kadhum Ibrahim touted the arrest as evidence that the still rebuilding Iraqi police “can be depended upon in the fight against terrorism” — looking to give his force a boost a day after police in the turbulent city of Fallujah were overwhelmed by dozens of gunmen in one of the best organized guerrilla attacks yet.

US officials gave conflicting reports yesterday on whether foreign fighters or Saddam loyalists carried out the bold, daytime assault on the Fallujah police station.

At least 27 people, mostly policemen, were killed in the raid, more than 30 people were wounded, and the attackers freed dozens of prisoners at the station. The assault raised questions whether Iraqi security forces are ready to take the front line against the insurgency as the United States wants when it hands over power to the Iraqis on June 30.

Abdul Razaq headed Saddam’s Baath Party in the northern provinces of Nineveh and Tamim, which include the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. He earlier served as interior minister, and Ibrahim said he kept a “personal prison” behind the police academy where “innocent people” were held in dog cages.

Abdul Razaq was presented to reporters at the Interior Ministry, where he sat next to Ibrahim on a couch, wearing a black traditional Arab robe and a white headdress. He was then handed over to the US-led coalition, Ibrahim said at a press conference later.

Police caught Abdul Razaq’s trail when they were tipped off that his son was trying to obtain weapons and fake passports, Ibrahim said.

Police observed the elder Abdul Razaq for 10 days before the special operations unit — trained by US experts — moved in on his house in the Baghdad suburb of Saydiya yesterday afternoon and found him on the second floor, Ibrahim said. Abdul Razaq offered no resistance.

Two US convoys were attacked nearly simultaneously in the same western neighborhood in Baghdad. A roadside bomb went off by one of the convoys, causing no injuries. But the soldiers opened fire, killing one Iraqi driver nearby and wounding six others, one of the wounded and hospital officials said.

Nearby, gunmen opened fire on another convoy, hitting a civilian SUV. The US command reported no casualties, but witnesses reported seeing three wounded foreigners being taken from the vehicle.

In Qaim, near the Syrian border about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad, US troops backed by tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles clashed yesterday with Iraqi gunmen, but there was no report of casualties. US and Iraqi officials have blamed Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq for the persistent campaign of attacks on American forces and their Iraqi allies. But pinpointing which guerrillas are behind individual attacks has proven complicated. The stunning attack in Fallujah on Saturday was no exception.

The top US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said he believed fighters from outside Iraq took part in the assault.

“There were foreigners apparently involved. We’re still looking into that to try to find out what the implications are,” he told the American TV network ABC’s “This Week” program.

Two of at least four gunmen killed in the gunbattle had Lebanese identification papers, according to Fallujah police. Some policemen said they heard attackers speaking a language other than Arabic, perhaps Farsi. But a US military officer in Baghdad said the attack’s sophistication pointed to former high-ranking Saddam-era military officers from Tikrit, likely leading Sunni Iraqis in the raid.

“It was a complex, well-coordinated attack. This would not be the same tactics that Al-Qaeda would employ. These are military tactics,” he said on condition of anonymity. He said the foreign language heard was more likely Kurdish, saying the raiders may have been joined by members of Ansar Al-Islam, an Iraqi group made up of Sunni Kurds suspected of links to Al-Qaeda.

— Additional input from agencies