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'Dr Germ' arrested
12/05/2003 18:02 - (SA)
Washington - US forces have detained the former director of Iraq's biological warfare programme, Rihab Rashid Taha, known as "Doctor Germ," US Central Command said on Monday.
Taha was not on the US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, but is still considered a key to uncovering whether the regime of Saddam Hussein was developing weapons banned by UN resolutions.
A Central Command statement said Taha "is now in the control of US forces."
US officials say Taha, a British-trained microbiologist and senior member of Saddam's Ba'ath party, led Iraq's drive to weaponise the deadly anthrax bacteria.
In an interview broadcast on the BBC in February, she denied that Iraq was trying to develop biological weapons.
She shares the distinction as a leader of Iraq's biological warfare programme with Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a US-trained microbiologist dubbed "Mrs Anthrax," who was captured a week ago.
- AFX
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