US claims biggest regime scalp yet

The hunt for Saddam Hussein's inner circle claimed its biggest success so far last night when American military officials announced the arrest of Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi, a former Iraqi prime minister who was implicated in the suppression of Shia uprisings after the 1991 Gulf war.

Mr Zubaidi, accused of masterminding the slaughter of thousands of Marsh Arabs, was seized at about 9.30pm local time at a house in Hillah, 56 miles south of Baghdad, by a brigade of fighters affiliated to the Iraqi National Congress (INC), working with American special forces.

A former member of the Iraqi revolutionary command council, Mr Zubaidi is one of nine senior regime officials whom the US government has said it wants tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity. As the queen of spades in the deck of cards released by the US central command, he ranked 18th in the list of most wanted figures. US state department documents call him one of the former regime's six key "executioners", alongside Saddam, the ousted dictator's sons Uday and Qusay, "Chemical" Ali Hassan Al-Majid - killed in a strike on Basra - and Aziz Salih Nuhman, a senior Ba'ath party commander.

As prime minister from 1991 to 1993, and deputy PM from 1994 to 2001 - for some of which he also served as commander of the central Euphrates region - he is alleged to have co-ordinated the killing of Shias in southern Iraq and the destruction of the region's marshes. Film footage shows him beating and kicking rebels. He is alleged to have issued orders to Iraqi commanders to "wipe out" specified Marsh Arab tribes.

Mr Zubaidi's capture came as the US general appointed to head an interim government in Baghdad, Jay Garner, arrived in Iraq from Kuwait. Lieut Gen Garner, who visited a hospital in the capital, said his priority was to ensure that electricity and water supplies were restored around the country.

The capture was the second reported major success for the INC's "Free Iraqi Fighters" in as many days: on Sunday, the group said it had been responsible for detaining Jamal Mustafa Abdullah Sultan al-Tikriti, Saddam's son-in-law.

But neither central command nor the Pentagon could confirm its role in Mr Zubaidi's capture. Along with the seizure of the Iraqi minister of higher education and research, Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Gafar, also on Sunday, his capture brings to eight the number of senior Saddam officials apprehended.