Four Arrested In Berg Beheading
(Baghdad, Iraq-AP, May 21, 2004) — Iraqi police have arrested four people in
the killing of American Nicholas Berg and believe a nephew of Saddam Hussein
was involved in Berg's beheading, an Iraqi security official said Friday.
The suspects were former members of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary
organization, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. They were
May 14 in a house in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad. The province
includes Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
The group that was involved in the killing of Berg was led by Yasser al-Sabawi,
a nephew of Saddam Hussein, the security official said. He said American
intelligence had asked Iraqi authorities to hand over the suspects, but they
were still in Iraqi hands.
Al-Sabawi was not among those arrested, the Iraqi official said.
Police intelligence agents arrested the suspects as they arrived to "plot other
major operations," the official said without elaborating. Four suspects had
arrived early for the 7 p.m. meeting and were inside the house, waiting for a
fifth associate who escaped arrest, he said.
Police seized weapons and explosives at the site. The Iraqi official said the
informant who tipped off authorities was killed by unidentified gunmen the day
after the arrests.
American officials have said they believe Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian
wanted for allegedly organizing attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq on behalf of
al-Qaida, personally carried out Berg's killing.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi refused to
comment on reports of arrests in the Berg case.
The body of Berg, 26, was found May 8 near a highway overpass in Baghdad. He
was last seen on April 10 when he left his Baghdad hotel.
A video posted May 11 on an al-Qaeda-linked Web site showed a bound Berg in an
orange jumpsuit. He was sitting in front of five men, their faces masked, as
one read an anti-American text.
After pushing Berg to the floor, the men severed his head with a knife and held
it up for the camera. They said his killing was in response to the abuse of
Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
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