Saddam Hussein’s great-nephew arrested in Lebanon for Isis atrocity

Saddam Hussein’s great-nephew has been arrested in Lebanon on charges of participating in the worst massacre carried out by Islamic State.

Abdullah Yasser Sabawi, 27, was reported to be living in the resort town of Byblos on the coast north of Beirut. The head of Lebanese general security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, confirmed to Iraqi media that Sabawi had been arrested on a warrant issued by Baghdad via Interpol.

“We are working according to international law and repatriation agreements between nations,” Ibrahim said. “He is accused of carrying out criminal operations that resulted in the death of thousands of innocents, based on an Interpol warrant that has been enforced by the relevant Lebanese security agencies.”

If the charges against Sabawi are proven, it will be further evidence of the close relationship between Isis and former officers and relatives of Saddam’s Iraqi Baathist regime, who stayed to foment guerrilla warfare after the United States-led invasion in 2003.

Sabawi is said to deny the charges. His father was among six nephews of Saddam sanctioned by the US in 2005 for involvement in attacks on American forces in Iraq.

His uncle, Saad Sabawi, who was also on the list, said that Abdullah had left Iraq at the time of the invasion when he was eight and had never been back. He said that the family had first lived in Yemen and, when that country fell into civil war, Abdullah had moved to Lebanon. He had registered there with the United Nations for protection and had lived quietly for four years, he said.

The Camp Speicher massacre was the gravest atrocity carried out by Isis as it swept through Iraq in 2014. Its fighters overwhelmed a training base near Tikrit, Saddam’s home town, separated the Sunni and Shia recruits, lined up the latter and shot them.

It has been known for some time that former Baathist officers were prominent among the Isis leadership. It is unclear how much any individual was motivated by Isis’s fundamentalist religious ideology and how many were following “stay behind” orders issued by Saddam before he was toppled.

It is the first time that a close relative of Saddam has been arrested for direct involvement in Isis crimes.