BAGHDAD, 13 July 2003 — Four men described as cousins of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were arrested yesterday with other members of the former regime, a senior adviser to the US-led coalition occupying Iraq said. Bernard Kerrick said the coalition “received confidential information ... that gave us the whereabouts and location of several members of the former regime who were involved in human rights violations.”
“Four of the men that were arrested were picked up in the last 12 hours and were cousins of Saddam,” said Kerrick. “They were members of Saddam’s personal security force,” he added, later describing the four as “alleged cousins” of Saddam.
“We found a number of photos during the seizure and arrest that showed these people, these four cousins, allegedly cousins, torturing a man,” Kerrick said, adding that an investigation was under way.
Kerrick did not name any of the arrested men or say where or under what circumstances they were detained.
In a separate statement yesterday, the US military said it had apprehended two “local opposition leaders”, Anwar Al-Asaw and Bashir Ahmed Thanun Al-Dulaymi, in the northern city of Mosul. On July 9 the US announced it had placed in custody two more former senior Iraqi officials from the 55 “most wanted”, of which more than half have already been captured.
Meanwhile, Iraqi police and the US Army presented a united front in the restive town of Fallujah yesterday with plans afoot to scale back the inflammatory presence of American soldiers.
But local police made no secret of their desire to see the backs of the occupiers. The region’s coalition commander stressed a US evacuation of the main police station and municipal office would not occur until sufficient equipment such as pistols and communications systems were obtained, and Fallujah police demonstrated a capability to maintain control.
“There’s no withdrawal, there’s no retreat. It’s a gradual transition and it started roughly a week ago,” Col. Joseph Di Salvo, the Second Brigade commander of the Third Infantry Division, told reporters in Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
He said a few US troops had been pulled back at the police station in the town where relations have been strained since the Americans shot dead at least 16 Iraqi demonstrators in April.
“It’s been reduced a little bit. How much? Less than 10 percent,” Di Salvo said of the number of troops posted with police — a significantly smaller reduction than that announced in a coalition statement Friday.
“There’s always been a plan as the police force gets trained up and also gets the equipment they need and their capabilities increased, then we will reduce our presence,” he said.
A coalition military statement hailed the restructuring as a “transition of responsibility,” and stressed that Iraqi police had “requested more authority in patrolling and securing the town.”
Yesterday, seven Humvees and armored vehicles and 30 US soldiers could be seen around the two-story station which has recently been fitted out with $38,000 worth of renovations and 14 new police cars, a US military spokeswoman said.
Di Salvo said the next step would be for police to conduct patrols alone, although he did not give a timeline for this. He said a less visible US presence would not be a victory for the supporters of ousted President Saddam Hussein, who launch guerrilla attacks on soldiers almost every day in Fallujah, and the rest of the Sunni Muslim belt north and west of Baghdad.
For his part, Fallujah’s US-installed police chief Gen. Riyad Abbas said US troops would eventually patrol the outskirts, while his men would control the town center. “We have not told the coalition forces to leave Fallujah,” Abbas said, papering over the fact some of his men demonstrated against the US presence here on Thursday. “We need all the necessary tools and we cannot do our job until they are back in order.”
Di Salvo insisted the pullback plan was not instituted as a response to Thursday’s police demonstration. Several police officers, however, did not mince their words when asked about the presence of US troops.
“We told the Americans that their presence at the station would make us targets,” deputy police chief Col. Jilal Sabri said.
“If the Americans leave government buildings things will become more stable,” he said, adding that jittery US troops on night patrols have responded heavy-handedly to various incidents, leading to local ire. Other police officers reiterated concern that the US presence made matters worse.
On Friday US authorities concluded training for the first two dozen recruits of a new “facilities protection service” in Fallujah expected to act as an armed civil guard. “We should protect our town, not the Americans,” said recruit Ammar Faiq Jehad.
A US special forces sergeant said it could take time before coalition forces hand over full authority to Fallujah police. “If we leave and things go badly then we’ll have to come back, and it’s harder to come back than to have stayed.” About 4,000 US troops are positioned around Fallujah.
