US: 'Dr Germ' stays in our custody

Two high-profile women prisoners in American custody will not be released immediately, the US embassy said in Baghdad despite an earlier announcement by Iraqi authorities.

The two scientists – dubbed Dr Germ and Mrs Anthrax “are in our legal and physical custody,” an embassy spokesman said.

“Legal status of these two and many others is under constant review,” he added.

An Iraqi Justice Ministry spokesman earlier announced that Iraqi authorities together with US-led forces had decided to release on bail one of the two women, Rihab Rashid Taha – Dr Germ.

Ministry spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim denied the decision was linked to a demand by militants who abducted two Americans and a Briton calling for the release of all female Iraqi prisoners.

“The Iraqi authorities have agreed with coalition forces to conditionally release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail,” Ibrahim said. “The decision has nothing to do with the threat made by the kidnappers.”

Ibrahim said authorities were also considering whether to release another female detainee, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, saying her case was “under study.”

Taha, a scientist who became known as Dr Germ for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as Mrs Anthrax and a former member of the Baath party, are the only two Iraqi women held in American custody, according to the US military.

Taha is the wife of Amer Mohammed Rashid, who surrendered to coalition forces in April. He was number 47 on the most-wanted list and had been Saddam’s missile expert.

An al-Qaida-linked group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed last night to have killed the second of two American hostages it kidnapped last week, saying US forces had failed to meet their demands for the release of women prisoners.

The militants are now threatening to kill British hostage. Kenneth Bigley, 62 from Liverpool.

“The release of the two high value detainees is a matter for the US and Iraqi authorities,” a spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Baghdad said: “It is not a process in which we are involved.”

“Our primary aim is to save the life of Kenneth Bigley,” she said, adding that there are no female detainees held by British troops in Iraq.

Bigley was seized with the two Americans – Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong - from the house they shared in Baghdad in a dawn raid last Thursday.

Hostage Jack Hensley’s brother said today that he believes a headless body handed over to US officials in Iraq today is his brother, though there was still no official confirmation.

Ty Hensley said Jack’s wife, Pati, was “extraordinarily devastated.”

“She is a widow now,” Ty Hensley said. “She is a mother of a 13-year-old daughter. She’s also a caregiver of two mothers. What has fallen upon her is an extraordinary amount of weight.”

He said he felt that despite their demands, the kidnappers always intended to kill the hostages. They never called an embassy to communicate their demands, he said.

The spiritual leader of the kidnappers has been killed in a US air strike. Islamic clerics said today.

Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, 35, was killed when a missile hit his car in Baghdad last Friday, said the clerics.

Al-Shami was an aide to Tawhid and Jihad’s leader, the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.