MOSUL, 21 August 2003 — The arrest of Saddam Hussein’s vice president here has turned the spotlight on this northern city as a hotbed for loyalists of the former Baath regime and a hideout for those on the coalition’s most-wanted list.
Mosul native Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam’s right-hand man and the most senior member of the ousted president’s inner circle yet to be captured, was arrested in a raid by Kurdish fighters Tuesday.
On July 22, Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a US operation in Mosul following a tip-off from a local resident.
Sunni Muslims, who represent around 60 percent of Mosul’s population, are loyalists of the former regime, with few exceptions.
“It’s easy for them (wanted former officials) to hide here,” said Sadi Ahmed Pire, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) representative for the oil-rich and predominantly Kurdish region.
“They have many friends and family members. They know the region well and we are not far from Tikrit,” Saddam’s hometown, Pire said.
A member of Mosul’s Municipal Council told AFP former Baathists resident in the city were not worried about the US-led coalition and that they remained powerful.
“They are regrouping. They feel safe. They are very organized so as to hide the most wanted men,” the councilor said on condition of anonymity.
“They benefit from a large network of hideouts throughout the region. They have millions of dollars that allows them to pay their accomplices and finance attacks on the Americans,” he said.
Many Mosul residents are still afraid of the former Baathists, he said. As an example, he cited an attack on the new police chief, a former Baathist who sided with the Americans, which left him seriously wounded and two bodyguards dead.
Mosul provided many officers and soldiers to the Iraqi Army, men who now find themselves jobless and stripped of their perks by the US-led coalition, which disbanded Saddam’s standing forces.
According to Pire, men hailing from Mosul made up a third of the regular Iraqi Army — or 22,000 officers and 200,000 soldiers. Most of whom are now very frustrated and, worryingly, well trained and armed.
“There were 10 Mosul natives serving as ministers in Saddam’s last government,” the councilor added.
“I would not be surprised if Saddam and (regime cohort) Ezzat Ad-Duri are hiding out in Mosul.”
Alfadhli Jafar, head of Mosul University’s law faculty said “they can easily hide out here. Many army and Republican Guard officers are from Mosul, and Tikrit and these people have a debt toward the regime that gave them everything.”
Residents in the city’s Al-Wahda district where Ramadan was captured were outraged by his arrest.
Iraqi Army colonel Maher Al-Assi, who witnessed the arrest, told AFP that had he known it was the former vice president, he would have attempted to stop his capture.
The arrest of Ramadan, ranked number 20 among the 55 most wanted members of the former Iraqi regime, brings to 38 the number of those ex-officials captured or killed since Saddam was ousted.
However, with three-quarters of the most wanted list captured or killed, the guerrilla insurgency against US soldiers shows no signs of diminishing.
