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Four Arrested in Iraq for Berg Killing

Posted on: Friday, 21 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police have arrested four people in the killing of American Nicholas Berg, an Iraqi security official said Friday.

The suspects were former members of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary organization, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. They were arrested a week ago in a house in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad.

The group that was involved in the killing of Berg was led by Yasser al-Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam Hussein, the security official said. He said American intelligence had asked Iraqi authorities to hand over the suspects, but they were still in Iraqi hands.

Al-Sabawi was not among those arrested, the Iraqi official said.

American officials have said they believe Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian wanted for allegedly organizing terrorists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq on behalf of al-Qaida, carried out Berg's killing.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi refused to comment on reports of arrests in the Berg case.

The body of Berg, 26, was found May 8 near a highway overpass in Baghdad. He was last seen on April 10 when he left his Baghdad hotel.

A video posted May 11 on an al-Qaeda-linked Web site showed a bound Berg in an orange jumpsuit - similar to those issued to prisoners held by the American military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was sitting in front of five men, their faces masked, as one read an anti-American text.

After pushing Berg to the floor, the men severed his head and held it up for the camera. They said his killing was in response to the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.

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