| A HIGH-RANKING officer of the feared Saddam-era Iraqi secret police was arrested early today in a village near Tikrit, police said. General Rabia Suhel Nadjam, former deputy chief of the secret police known as the mukhabarat, was arrested during a joint US-Iraqi operation, Tikrit police Colonel Hatam Abdoula told AFP. The operation, involving tanks and helicopters as well as US army and Iraqi national guard troops, took place at 4am (10am AEST) at Albu Hyazeh, some three kilometres east of Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, 180km north of Baghdad. Gen. Nadjam was arrested at his home along with his 20-year-old son, Mokdad, according to police. The general was deputy to secret police chief Taher Jalil Habbush, 16th on the US list of most-wanted Iraqis, who remains at large. |