Iraq names 60 most-wanted militants and Baathists

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security services published the names of 60 people wanted on suspicion of belonging to the militant Islamic State group, Al Qaeda or the Baath Party of late dictator Saddam Hussein.
The list includes the name of Saddam’s daughter Raghad, who lives in Jordan.
It also features 28 suspected IS jihadists, 12 from Al Qaeda and 20 Baathists, giving details of the roles they allegedly play in their organisations, crimes of which they are suspected and in most cases, photographs.
All are Iraqis apart from Maan Bashour, a Lebanese man accused of recruiting fellow citizens to fight in Iraq.
“It’s an old story that dates back to the American invasion of Iraq when we were partisans of the Iraqi resistance,” Bashour said. “Yes, we carried out activities against the American occupation.” The name of elusive IS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is absent from the list. A senior security official declined to explain why.
“These are the terrorists most wanted by the judicial authorities and the security services,” the official said. “This is the first time we publish these names which, until now were secret.” The IS fighters the document lists are accused of fighting in Iraq’s second city Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh, as well as in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Anbar.
IS seized a third of Iraq’s territory during a lightning advance in 2014, before being beaten back by security forces backed by a United States-led coalition.
IS fighters on the list are accused of murders, bombings, attacks on security forces, and the financing and transport of weapons.
The list includes senior members of the group, among them Fawaz Mohammad Mutlaq, a former officer in Saddam’s Fedayeen paramilitary organisation who later became a member of IS’s military council.