scooper
06-25-2003, 02:55 PM
per yahoo
Mideast - AFP
Iraqi information minister nabbed in Baghdad: British report
Wed Jun 25, 7:07 AM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!
LONDON (AFP) - Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraq (news - web sites)'s information minister at the end of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime, has been captured in Baghdad, a British newspaper claimed.
AFP/File Photo
The Daily Mirror said al-Sahaf -- nicknamed "comical Ali" for his robust denials that Baghdad was falling to US troops -- was snared in his car at a US military roadblock on Monday.
In a dispatch from Baghdad, it said al-Sahaf's captors allowed him to go back to a house where he had apparently been holed up with his wife and three children "to collect a toothbrush, razor and book."
"He has some serious talking to do... this time," the tabloid, which had strongly opposed the US-led war to oust Saddam, quoted a "senior coalition source" as saying.
In Baghdad, neither the top civil administrator in the Iraqi capital, Paul Bremer, nor an official US military spokesman was able to confirm al-Sahaf's arrest.
"I have no confirmation on an arrest. Information about that will come in due course from the military," Bremer told reporters.
Mideast - AFP
Iraqi information minister nabbed in Baghdad: British report
Wed Jun 25, 7:07 AM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!
LONDON (AFP) - Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraq (news - web sites)'s information minister at the end of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime, has been captured in Baghdad, a British newspaper claimed.
AFP/File Photo
The Daily Mirror said al-Sahaf -- nicknamed "comical Ali" for his robust denials that Baghdad was falling to US troops -- was snared in his car at a US military roadblock on Monday.
In a dispatch from Baghdad, it said al-Sahaf's captors allowed him to go back to a house where he had apparently been holed up with his wife and three children "to collect a toothbrush, razor and book."
"He has some serious talking to do... this time," the tabloid, which had strongly opposed the US-led war to oust Saddam, quoted a "senior coalition source" as saying.
In Baghdad, neither the top civil administrator in the Iraqi capital, Paul Bremer, nor an official US military spokesman was able to confirm al-Sahaf's arrest.
"I have no confirmation on an arrest. Information about that will come in due course from the military," Bremer told reporters.