BAGHDAD, April 24: The United States announced the capture of four more key members of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle.

Iraq’s director of military intelligence Zuhayr Talib Abd al Sattar al Naqib, air defense force commander Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al-Tikriti and Trade Minister Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih were in US hands, US Central Command said.

Naqib was holding red beads in one hand and an attache case with his personal belongings in the other when he surrendered to US troops, according to the Los Angeles Times, which had interviewed him shortly beforehand.

“This was the military, you move up from position to position. I was just following orders,” he was quoted as saying. “But I will not answer whether I believed in the regime.”

The arrests brought to 11 the number of key fugitives on the most wanted list captured since the fall of Saddam’s regime, marked when US forces swept into Baghdad on April 9.

In a separate statement, the US military said coalition special forces had also captured Salim Sa’id Khalaf al-Jumayli, former chief of the Iraqi intelligence service’s US desk. He was not on the “most wanted” list.

“He is suspected of having knowledge of Iraqi intelligence service activities in the United States, including names of persons spying for Iraq,” said spokesman Jim Wilkinson.

In Baghdad, Iraq’s US civil administrator tackled the task of finding Iraqis able to work with US forces to put the country back on its feet after 24 years of Saddam’s rule, scheduling a town meeting for prospective leaders.

Garner met with 60 hand-picked university professors, government technocrats and other Iraqis, but US officials said they were not necessarily being groomed for posts in an eventual administration.

“Our purpose here in your country is to create an environment for you so that we can begin a process of government that leads to a democratic form in Iraq,” the retired US general told the all-male group.—AFP