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U.S. Captures Former Iraqi Intelligence Chief

Friday, April 25, 2003
Islam-Online.net & News Agencies

Of the more than a dozen top Iraqi officials taken into U.S. custody so far, several were intelligence officials.

Hijazi is accused by Washington of masterminding the 1993 attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait
Image Credit: Islam Online

WASHINGTON -- IO
Iraqi former intelligence chief Farouk Hijazi was captured by U.S. forces near the borders with Syria, a U.S. official announced on Friday, April 25.

Hijazi is accused by Washington of masterminding the attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait in 1993, when he was the third-ranking Iraqi intelligence official, CNN quoted U.S. officials as saying.

The plan was to kill Bush with remote-controlled car bombs but Kuwaiti authorities broke up the plot and the explosives that were to be used were allegedly traced to Iraq.

The United States retaliated in June 1993 by firing 23 sea-launched cruise missiles at the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Many observers had argued that among the reasons behind the invasion of Iraq was a personal desire by incumbent U.S. President George Bush to retaliated the attempted attack on his father’s life.

* Iraq denied any links with al-Qaeda network
(More: Islam-Online.net)
2003 © Islam Online.

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