Saddam's relatives backing Iraqi insurgents

Saddam Hussein’s relatives are involved in the smuggling of guns, people and money into Iraq to support the anti-American insurgency, it was reported today.

The New York Times said some of the fallen dictator’s cousins, operating in part from Syria and Jordan, are party of the network,

The operations involve at least three cousins who now live in Syria and Europe, American officials told the Times.

A leading figure among them is Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, a Saddam cousin and a former officer in Iraq’s Special Security Organisation who fled from Iraq to Syria last spring and may still be living there.

The view that the cousins are helping finance the insurgency developed fairly recently and is described in intelligence reports, the US officials said.

They said the conclusion was based in part on suspicious recent movements of money and goods, including the transfer of cash into Syria, that were detected by American intelligence.