Baath Party Commander, Culture Minister in U.S. Custody
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
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Another Baath Party (search) regional commander was taken into custody in Iraq Tuesday as the U.S. military's deck of cards of Iraq's 55 most wanted gets thinner.
Iraq's former culture minister also was in U.S. hands.
Fox News has learned that an Iraqi government operative, identified as Fadil Mahmud Gharib (search), is now under the control of U.S. forces. He was listed as No. 47 on the U.S. Central Command's (search) list of top Iraqi regime members being sought. Gharib is the "three of hearts" in the deck.
Gharib's picture is not shown on the card, like it is for most other top regime members wanted by the coalition.
But he was part of the Baath Party's regional command, in charge of the "Babil District."
Although he's not on the list of 55, the newly confirmed capture of former Culture Minister Hamed Youssef Hamadi (search) is significant, senior military officials say, because they hope he can shed some light on what happened to some of the country's most important missing artifacts.
After U.S. troops rolled into Baghdad and the regime was toppled, rampant looting took place and many precious artifacts from the country's museums were stolen.
Hamadi, one military official told Fox News, was No. 116 on the list of the top 200 most sought-after Iraqi officials.
Senior defense officials told Fox News that U.S. forces on average capture or accept the surrender of one to two leaders a day. The fugitives are then taken into custody in Iraq.
Other negotiations are taking place to round up about 200 other members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Fox News' Ian McCaleb, Bret Baier and Chris Wright contributed to this report.
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