US Uncovers "Credible" Al-Qaeda Plot in Iraq, Detains Baath Leader

February 10, 2004

BAGHDAD (AFP) - American forces in Iraq detained one of the remaining most-wanted of Saddam Hussein's regime amid what US officials called a "credible" plot to recruit Al-Qaeda help in fomenting civil war Iraq which offers proof of the terror group's longstanding ambitions in Iraq.

A 17-page document captured in a raid on a Baghdad Al-Qaeda safe house details plans to target Shiite Muslims to spark a backlash against Sunnis to disrupt US power transfer plans and throw recruits behind the Al-Qaeda cause.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the undated memo gives "some credence" to US pre-war identification of links between Osama bin Laden's terror group and the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The claims came as defence officials in Washington touted the detention of one of the remaining most-wanted figures from Saddam's government.

Muhsin Khadr, a former Baath party chairman who was number 48 in the US military's Iraqi most-wanted "deck of cards", was turned over to US forces at the weekend.

His arrest, leaving at large just 12 people from the card deck, of which Saddam was the ace of spades, came as the US army placed new bounties on the heads of suspected insurgent leaders.

It maintained at 10 million dollar reward on the head of Saddam Hussein's right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, but added five million dollars on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda.

Zarqawi is suspected of being the author of the 17-page memo, which US officials in Baghdad say details a plot that could "tear the country apart".

"We take the threat seriously," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the deputy operations chief of the US-led coalition, told reporters in Baghdad.

"There is clearly a plan on the part of the outsiders to spark civil war, commit sectarian violence, try to expose fissures in society."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said of the letter: "It certainly lends, I think, some credence to what we said at the UN last year, that (Zarqawi) was active in Iraq in doing things that should have been known to the Iraqis" before the US-led invasion.

But, he added, "we're still looking for those connections and to prove those connections."

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said the letter laments Al-Qaeda's inability to rid Iraq of US troops.

He said it suggests that mounting an attack on Iraq's Shiite majority could aid the movement's operations by prompting a counter-attack against the Sunni minority.

"It talks about a strategy of provoking violence against the Shia and Shia leaders in the hope that it will result in reprisals against other ethnic groups in the country ... in the hope of tearing this country apart," Senor said.

US officials say techniques used in recent deadly attacks in Iraq point to an increasing Al-Qaeda involvement.

The group has been designated a prime suspect in twin suicide bombings in the northern city of Arbil earlier this month that killed at least 105 people and an attack on the coalition headquarters in Baghdad that left 24 dead.

Meanwhile, UN chief Kofi Annan said he hoped to be able to report conclusions of an election study mission in Iraq by the end of February.

The UN team arrived in Baghdad on Saturday after Iraq's majority Shiite community staged huge protests against Washington's plans to cede power to an unelected government.

Coalition officials maintain direct polls before the handover are impractical as Iraq lacks sufficient infrastructure and security.

Tens of thousands of Shiites were gathering Tuesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, for a feast that celebrates the prophet Mohammed's appointment of his son-in-law Ali as his successor.

Balloons lined the streets of the city, while many of the 100,000 pilgrims slept in the streets around Najaf's holy shrine.

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