Iraqi police capture brother of Saddam bodyguard

Iraqi police have arrested the brother of one of Saddam Hussein’s top bodyguards and handed him to US forces, who wanted him for allegedly organising guerrilla attacks against American soldiers.

US Lt Col Steve Russell said the man was a brother of Adnan Abdullah Abid al-Musslit, the senior Saddam bodyguard who was captured on July 29 in Tikrit.

Al-Musslit was “one of Saddam’s lifelong bodyguards” and was believed to have detailed knowledge of the former president’s hiding places.

Russell said documents and other information obtained from the men would be useful in the hunt for the former Iraqi dictator.

Also today, the US military said a soldier died in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, after falling off a building he was guarding. There was no indication of foul play.

American soldiers in Tikrit, meanwhile, planned to begin training recruits for Iraq’s civil defence force in the coming week.

The armed militia will receive basic military training to protect key infrastructure like bridges and market places from attacks and sabotage by insurgents and will serve as a quick reaction force to fight rebels who attack US forces or civilian targets, Russell said.

“They will help protect infrastructure, they will do non-policing tasks so that if there are attacks on government buildings they will be able to respond,” Russell said.

Thirty-five men will be trained initially and will hopefully serve as the core for the new Iraqi defence force. After completing a few week’s training, the force will be armed with AK-47s and outfitted in the same “chocolate chip” desert camouflage uniforms that US troops wore during the first Gulf War.