Ex-Saddam aide leading attacks, says US official

A man close to Saddam Hussein is believed to be helping co-ordinate attacks on American forces with members of an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group, a senior US defence official said.

Two captured members of Ansar al-Islam have said Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, whose daughter is the widow of Saddam’s son Uday, is helping to co-ordinate their attacks, the official said.

That information is the first solid evidence of links between remnants of Saddam’s regime and the non-Iraqi fighters responsible for at least some of the attacks on American forces and their Iraqi allies, the official said.

Pentagon officials say Ansar al-Islam, which operated in northern Iraq before its camp was destroyed during the war, poses one of the greatest threats in Iraq.

Military commanders have said they believe hundreds of non-Iraqi fighters from Ansar have entered Iraq to fight the US led occupation, many of them through neighbouring Iran.

Al-Douri is number six on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis and was vice chairman of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council.

He was one of Saddam’s few long-time confidants and his daughter was married to Saddam’s son, Uday, who was killed in a raid by US forces in July.

US officials have been searching for months for suspected links between Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters like Ansar members.

President Bush and other officials have said they believe the bombings in Baghdad on Monday were the work of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters or both.

Pentagon officials say the Baghdad bombings – four explosions in different parts of the city in less than an hour – show a level of sophistication they had not seen before.

Di Rita said the bombings indicated co-ordination ”at least at the regional level.”

The defence official who discussed the al-Douri link said he did not know if the al-Douri-Ansar alliance was responsible for the Baghdad bombings.

He said military officials do not know to what extent al-Douri was co-ordinating attacks with Ansar.

Earlier this month, American forces captured a top associate of al-Douri in the town of Baqouba north of Baghdad.

US officials have said for at least two months they suspect al-Douri of co-ordinating attacks on Americans but had not previously linked him to Ansar.

They say Ansar al-Islam has links to al-Qaida and has experimented with producing crude biological and chemical weapons.

The group operated in a small section of northern Iraq surrounded by Kurdish-controlled areas which were outside Saddam’s control.

Kurdish officials have long alleged that Saddam’s government helped Ansar, but US officials have said they have not yet found definitive proof of that.