Insurgent 'paymasters' caught
2004-01-11 17:43
Baghdad - US soldiers arrested four men in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday accused of working for the top fugitive in Iraq as rebel paymasters.
The four were paying insurgents to attack US troops on behalf of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, one of Saddam Hussein's former chief lieutenants and an apparent financier of the anti-US guerrilla war, said Major Trey Cate, spokesperson for the US Army's 101st Airborne Division.
The US-led occupation administration of Iraq has issued a $10m reward for al-Douri, who has taken the spot as the most wanted man in Iraq since Saddam's capture.
Al-Douri has been described by military and intelligence sources as a top leader of the insurgency - although others have said the elderly man was sick and too busy trying to elude his pursuers.
The four men were arrested in Mosul on Sunday, amid two days of raids that captured 10 others, including a man who acted as a rebel "facilitator" - "someone we suspect is either moving money or cultivating contacts and organising events" for a local insurgent leader, Cate said.
- AP