WASHINGTON, April 17: US special operations forces claim to have captured Saddam Hussein’s half brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, US military officials said on Thursday.

Mr Ibrahim Hasan was reported to have been a presidential adviser to Saddam Hussein with “extensive knowledge of the regime’s workings,” Pentagon officials told reporters. On April 11 Saddam Hussein’s another half brother, Watban Hasan Ibrahim, was arrested by the Kurdish forces while attempting to cross border into Syria.

The officials said Mr Hasan was captured alone in Baghdad by a contingent of US marines and special forces. The troops sustained no injuries during the operation, officials said.

A week ago, a US warplane blasted the Barzan residence, located south of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit, with six “smart bombs” but failed to kill the former head of Iraq’s Mukhabarat intelligence service.

The whereabouts of top Iraqi officials remains a major concern for the United States. Top on the list are President Saddam Hussein himself, his sons Qusay and Uday, his cousin and bodyguard Abed Hamid Hmoud, who was considered the most powerful man in Iraq after the president and his sons, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim, and Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.