The United States on Wednesday trumpeted the capture of a veteran Palestinian guerrilla leader in Iraq as proof of a link between Saddam Hussein and terrorism as troops continued to hunt for the ousted leader and his aides. The U.S. military said the detention in Baghdad of Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, helped to justify the U.S.-led war on Iraq. But the Palestinian Authority demanded his release. “When we came into this the Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) said one big concern was the nexus between this regime and terrorism. This proves the nexus was there,” said Captain Frank Thorp, spokesman at U.S. war headquarters in Qatar. Meanwhile, U.S. forces were launching spot raids around the Iraqi capital in search of people linked to Saddam, said a U.S. Marine who asked not to be named. Saddam and his sons, Uday and Qusay, have disappeared, as have most of his aides. Only two out of 55 officials on a U.S. “most wanted” list have so far been caught. Full Story
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