Baghdad: The capture of the Palestinian mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro
hijacking boosted Washington's case against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, as Iraqis began
the tortuous process of replacing the regime toppled a week ago.
Keeping up the pressure on Damascus, the United States said a suspected Iraqi
terrorist was on the loose in Syria.
There were reports that US troops stormed buildings in Baghdad on April 16 in their
hunt for illegal weapons and fugitive members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle,
raiding the home of Rahib Taha, a microbiologist nicknamed "Dr Germ" by UN weapons
inspectors.
Meanwhile, US special operations forces backed by Army troops on April 14 arrested
Mohammad Abbas, the Palestinian radical known as Abu Abbas who masterminded the
hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, Central Command (Centcom) said.
"The capture of Abu Abbas in Iraq removes a portion of the terror network supported
by Iraq and represents yet another victory in the global war on terrorism," the
command said in a statement.
Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front who was living in Iraq under the
protection of Saddam, was captured in Southern Baghdad, Centcom said.
He was sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms for his role in the Achille
Lauro hijacking, in which an elderly, wheelchair-bound American tourist, Leon
Klinghoffer,
was murdered and thrown into the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Faruq Hijazi, a suspected high-ranking operative of the Iraqi
intelligence service, believed to have played a key role in a 1993 plot to
assassinate former US
president George Bush, was spotted in Syria after arriving from Tunisia, a US
official in Washington said.
Hijazi, whose last official post was ambassador to the North African nation, flew to
Damascus from Tunis on a commercial flight apparently seeking refuge there after the
toppling of the Iraqi government.
