Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter named on Iraq's most-wanted list

 

Iraqi security services on Sunday published the names of 60 people wanted on suspicion of belonging to Daesh, Al-Qaeda or the Baath Party of late dictator Saddam Hussein.

The list, seen by AFP, includes the name of Saddam's daughter Raghad, who lives in Jordan.

It also features 28 suspected Daesh terrorists, 12 from Al-Qaeda and 20 Baathists, giving details of the roles they allegedly play in their organisations, crimes of which they are suspected and in most cases, photographs.

All are Iraqis apart from Maan Bashour, a Lebanese man accused of recruiting fellow citizens to fight in Iraq.

"It's an old story that dates back to the American invasion of Iraq when we were partisans of the Iraqi resistance," Bashour told AFP. "Yes, we carried out activities against the American occupation."

The name of elusive Daesh head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is absent from the list. A senior security official contacted by AFP declined to explain why.

"These are the terrorists most wanted by the judicial authorities and the security services," the official said. "This is the first time we publish these names which, until now were secret."

The Daesh fighters are accused of fighting in Iraq's second city Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh, as well as in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Anbar.

Daesh seized a third of Iraq's territory during a lightning advance in 2014, before being beaten back by security forces backed by a United States-led coalition.

Daesh fighters on the list seen by AFP on Sunday are accused of murders, bombings, attacks on security forces, and the financing and transport of weapons.

The list includes senior members of the group, among them Fawaz Mohammad Mutlaq, a former officer in Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary organisation who later became a member of Daesh's military council.