US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday embarked on his first post-Iraq war visit to the Gulf region even as coalition forces captured a top Iraqi who served as liaison officer to the UN weapons inspectors.
Rumsfeld's first stop ahead of an expected visit to Iraq was in the United Arab Emirates, where he thanked Abu Dhabi's cooperation in use of an airbase during the war and discussed the postwar military arrangements in the region.
His tour comes even as angry Iraqis held rallies demanding restoration basic facilities like water and electricity as also physical security, a day after at least six members of a family were killed in an explosion at a weapons dump.
The capture of General Hossam Mohammad Amin, former head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, brings to 13 the number of Iraqis seized from the US list of the 55 most wanted officials from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
The general was 49th in the list and portrayed as the six of clubs in the deck of playing cards issued by the US.
Meanwhile, Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi said Saddam is still alive and on the run, but on the verge of being apprehended.
"Coalition forces will be able to catch him pretty soon," Chalabi told Fox News.
Meanwhile, hundreds of angry Iraqis demonstrated in front of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, which hosts reporters under the guard of US troops, demanding restoration of phone lines, fuel, water and electricity.
Advisors of Jay Garner, the US appointee to manage a post-war administration, said 65 to 70 per cent of Baghdad now had access to running water, hospitals were earmarked as a priority and that electricity has been restored to parts of Baghdad.
A team of Iraqi experts, many from the former regime, would be put in place in a few days to run Baghdad, according to US officials.
In another development, US experts are testing material found in 14 unmarked drums in northern Iraq. ABC TV reported that the drums had been found near Bayji, about 210km northwest of Baghdad, on Friday.
At least two previous suspected chemical weapons discoveries had turned out to be harmless, but suspicion about the Bayji barrels remain as they were found near missiles and gas masks, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, Britain's Sunday Telegraph daily said it had found documents linking Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden. It said an envoy of the Al Qaeda terror network travelled to Baghdad at Saddam's invitation in 1998 'to establish a relationship based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia'.
Another British paper The Sunday Times, meanwhile, said France had regularly briefed Iraqi officials on its dealings with the US as recently as late 2001, citing files found from the wreckage of Iraq's foreign ministry.
In a separate development in Mumbai, a consignment comprising five tonnes of medical aid and accompanied by about 25 delegates, doctors and paramedical staff left for Iraq to provide relief to victims of the war in the country.
The consignment was organised by the Red Crescent Society of India, a non-governmental organisation.
A second consignment of 10 tonnes of medial aid would be airlifted jointly by Air-India and Kuwait Airways next week.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Housing Minister Nawab Malik, Kuwait Consul General Sand Al Davesh and film director Mahesh Bhatt were among those present on the occasion.
PTI
