US Marines, Iraqi Cops To Jointly Patrol Baghdad

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Baghdad, April 12: : As looting spread to new areas of Baghdad, US marines agreed to joint patrols with the Iraqis to help restore order. The number one Iraqi wanted for questioning about Iraq’s chemical weapons program turned himself into US authorities.

In Western Iraq, US forces seized a busload of men who had $630,000 in cash and a letter offering rewards for killing American soldiers. US spokesman Vincent Brooks said the 59 men, all of military age, were captured heading toward Iraq’s border with Syria. He said he did not know the men’s nationalities nor who wrote the letter offering rewards.

In Baghdad, US marines and an Iraqi police official said American forces and Iraqi police would soon begin joint patrols to try to stop looting and re-establish authority in the capital.

Iraqi police Col Mohammed Zaki said the patrols will start in a day or two, but the marines did not give a definite time for the patrols to begin. “It’s going to happen sooner rather than later, said a marine leader Jeremy Stafford.

Also in the capital, Lt Gen Amir al-Saadi, a special adviser to president Saddam Hussein who once oversaw Iraq’s chemical weapons programs, turned himself in to US forces, according to Germany’s ZDF TV. The station said al-Saadi, who has a German wife, had asked it to send a crew to witness his surrender for his own safety.

The TV quoted al-Saadi as saying he knew nothing about Saddam’s fate and repeating what he said many times - Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Saadi is first person on US central command’s list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

In the North, the Kurdish militiamen who captured Kirkuk were beginning to withdraw, solving a political problem with neighboring Turkey. The Turks feared Kurdish control of the oil center would be a step toward a state for Kurds, which could stir up Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

Rostam Hamid Rahim, a high-level military commander with one of the major Turkish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said all the Kurdish fighters have been ordered to leave Kirkuk as American forces take over the city.

In the East, the 24th marine expeditionary unit has set up blocking positions north and south of the city of Kut, and marines were stopping vehicles to search for soldiers or paramilitary fighters trying to escape the city. AP