WORLD / Middle East

Saddam's daughter, wife on wanted list
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-02 17:58

Iraq on Sunday named Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter and his first wife on a list of 41 "most wanted" in connection with terrorism.

Saddam's daughter, Raghd, has taken a leading role in organising her father's legal defence for crimes against humanity. She is believed to spend much of her time in neighbouring Jordan.

Her mother Sajida is also on the list topped by former Saddam deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and including the new head of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

"These people you see here carry out the majority of what you see in bombings," National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al- Rubaie told a televised news conference in Baghdad.

Rubaie announced the list one day after a car bomb killed more than 60 people in a crowded market in a Shi'ite district in eastern Baghdad in the bloodiest attack in three months.

Rubaie urged countries "harbouring these people to hand them over to the Iraqi people for a fair trial".

The list included senior members from Saddam's Baath party and al Qaeda militants. Some like Douri are still on the three- year-old "deck of cards", a list of 55 wanted Baathist officials issued by the U.S. military.

After a U.S. air strike killed al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on June 7, the group named Masri as its successor. Al Qaeda has vowed to avenge Zarqawi's death.