Number eight on 'most wanted' list captured
US forces have captured a former senior Baath Party leader who is number eight on Central Command’s list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis.
A brief Central Command statement said Aziz Saleh al-Numan ”is now in custody of coalition forces.”
He is the highest-ranking person on the list of 55 to be taken into custody so far.
Al-Numan was identified as the Baath Party’s regional command chairman responsible for west Baghdad. He also is a former governor of Karbala and Najaf, according to the Central Command statement.
Central Command said he was captured by coalition forces Wednesday near Baghdad. No other details were provided.
The highest-ranked Iraqi from the list of 55 in custody prior to al-Numan’s capture was Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, a former deputy prime minister and former member of the Baath Party regional command. He was taken into custody on April 20.
In June 2002 the anti-Saddam group known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said that al-Numan was wounded in his arms and legs in an assassination attempt the previous month in the southern city of Amara. It asserted that al-Numan was responsible for “vicious crimes against our citizens.”
The capture of al-Numan brought to 25 the number of Iraqis from the top-55 list who are in coalition custody, according to the Pentagon’s count.
