WASHINGTON, May 12: US forces have taken into custody two more key figures from Iraq’s toppled government, the British-educated microbiologist dubbed “Dr Germ” and the former armed forces chief of staff, officials said on Monday.

Rihab Rashid Taha Al-Azzawi Al-Tikriti, who received her doctorate from Britain’s University of East Anglia before guiding Iraq’s biological arms development, was taken into custody over the weekend, said a defence official.

The official said Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al Sattar Muhammad al Tikriti, listed as No 11 on the US list of the top 55 most-wanted Iraqis and designated as the jack of spades in the US deck of cards of fugitive Iraqis, also was in the control of US forces.

“We have him in custody,” the official said.

His apprehension means that 20 of the 55 now have been apprehended, with another three dead, the official added.

Only one other captured official from President Saddam Hussein’s former government ranks higher on the US most-wanted list — Air Defence Force Commander Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al Tikriti, who was taken into custody on April 23.

Taha is married to former Iraqi oil minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed, who surrendered to US forces on April 28. Ranked as No 47 on the US list, he ran Iraq’s military industries until becoming oil minister in 1995. Taha is not on the list.

“She has a background in biological weapons, and so that is obviously important to us,” said Major Brad Lowell, a spokesman for US Central Command. Central Command described her as “former director of the Iraqi bacterial/biological programme.”

The announcement of her apprehension comes a week after it was disclosed a second Iraqi woman scientist linked to biological weapons programme had been apprehended.—Reuters