US holds four more key Iraqis, Shi'ites show power

11.45am - By SAUL HUDSON

KERBALA, Iraq - US forces took four more fugitive members of Saddam Hussein's scattered ruling elite into custody on Wednesday as huge crowds of Shi'ite pilgrims surged through the holy city of Kerbala, signalling to Washington they will be a powerful force in the new Iraq.

General Zuhayr Talib Abd al Sattar al Naqib, Saddam's chief of military intelligence, gave himself up in Baghdad and US special forces captured Salim Sa'id Khalaf Al-Jumayli, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service's American desk.

Naqib was No 21 on America's list of the 55 most-wanted former members of Saddam's government and US Central Command said Jumayli is suspected of having knowledge of Iraqi spies and intelligence activities in the United States.

The US military also said Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti, Air Defence Force commander and No 10 on the wanted list, "is under coalition control" but gave no details of his capture.

The former Iraqi minister of trade, Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih, No 48 on the list is also in US custody, bringing to 11 the number of Iraqis on the US most-wanted list to surrender or be captured.

"They're collapsing like a house of cards," said Army Lieutenant Colonel Tom Kurasiewicz, a Pentagon spokesman.

The whereabouts of Saddam himself and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, are still a mystery.

As masses of Shi'ites thronged the streets of Kerbala, Washington, apparently alarmed that they might take their lead from neighboring Iran, warned Tehran against "interfering" with events in Iraq.

"We've made clear to Iran that we would oppose any outside interference in Iraq's road to democracy," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "Infiltration of agents to destabilize the Shi'ite population would clearly fall into that category."

The United States believes Iranian-trained agents have crossed into southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein and are working to advance Iranian interests.

The commander of US ground forces in Iraq said his troops were closely watching Iran and its Iraqi allies in case they begin to pose a threat.

"Right now, the Shi'ites and any Iranian-influenced Shi'ite actions are not an overt threat to coalition forces. But we are watching all of these competing interests," Army Lieutenant General David McKiernan said in Baghdad.

In a fresh sign of tensions on the Iran-Iraq border, an Iranian opposition militia based in Iraq said it captured four Iranian soldiers after a frontier skirmish.

The Shi'ite pilgrimage, banned under Saddam, a Sunni, was marked by anti-American slogans and calls for an Islamic state. Pilgrims beat their chests, slashed their scalps with swords and whipped themselves with chains as they marked one of the most sacred festivals of their calendar.

Shi'ite leaders expect a million or more people to attend the pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, who was killed there 13 centuries ago.

Shi'ites make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's population.

Retired US General Jay Garner, in charge of reconstruction of Iraq, told a news conference he thought the bulk of Shi'ites were "very glad they are where they are right now."

Garner spoke in Arbil in the Kurdish-controlled north, where he is warmly regarded for his role in helping Kurds set up their autonomous zone after the 1991 Gulf War.

"We have this small moment in time where we can make all of Iraq democratic," he said.

Kurdish and US officials announced plans for a commission to resolve disputes between Arabs and thousands of Kurds who were displaced from their homes under Saddam.

The Washington Post quoted officials of President George W Bush's administration as saying they had focused on ousting Saddam and had not given much thought to filling the ensuing power vacuum. They said the administration had underestimated the Shi'ite majority and was not in a position to prevent the possible rise of an anti-American, fundamentalist government.

Experts in the United States had warned the Bush administration that toppling Saddam would open the door to Iranian influence and that Iraqi Shi'ites would try to convert their strength in numbers into a powerful political force.

But Ahmad Chalabi, a Shi'ite leader in exile who is now trying to build a domestic constituency in Iraq, helped persuade the Pentagon and the White House that radical Shia fundamentalism would not take hold.

"Chalabi helped sell the idea of secular Shi'ism to them and gave the policy makers a sense of security," a US official told Reuters.

The ability of Shi'ite clerics to smoothly organize the pilgrimage has underscored their influence in postwar Iraq.

In Tehran, Iraqi Shi'ite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim said he was ready to work with the United States and others to establish stability in his shattered homeland.

Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and one of the most powerful forces among Iraq's Shi'ites, said the Kerbala pilgrimage showed Iraqis were able to govern themselves, but there was no parallel between Iraq and Iran's Islamic republic.

"We should not make a copy of the Iranian revolution and establish it in Iraq," he said.

The diplomatic deep freeze between Washington and Paris over France's opposition to the US-led war showed no sign of thawing after US Secretary of State Colin Powell said France would suffer the consequences of its anti-US position.

A senior State Department official said Washington may seek to exclude France from key Nato decisions.

France proposed suspending UN sanctions against Iraq, but said they should not formally be lifted until UN inspectors certify Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction. Paris left unclear how France can find a consensus with the United States, which insists the embargoes must be lifted completely.

French President Jacques Chirac's spokeswoman quoted him as saying France made its sanctions proposals so as "to work with its partners on the different problems at hand," but that it remained convinced of "the importance of international law and the role of the United Nations."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq