U.S. Frees 2 Regime Officials Held Since War’s Early Days

A group of high-ranking Iraqi officials from the Saddam Hussein regime, including two biological weapons experts known as Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax, has been released after almost three years in detention, American officials said Monday.

The move came as violence again broke out across the country and as an Islamic militant group released a videotape it said showed the execution of an American hostage kidnapped this month.

One of the eight people released was Rihab Taha -- dubbed Dr. Germ for her involvement in Hussein’s biological weapons program -- the U.S. military said. Another was Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a former top Baath Party official known as Mrs. Anthrax.

In the well-publicized deck of cards showing the Pentagon’s most wanted officials from Hussein’s regime, Ammash was the five of hearts for her role in Iraq’s biological warfare program.

The Bush administration cited the existence of a clandestine program to develop weapons of mass destruction as the reason for invading Iraq in March 2003, although no such arms were ever found.

American officials decided that the eight prisoners no longer posed a security threat and released them Saturday, said Army Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq.

The military also announced the death Sunday of a Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), who was shot during combat in Ramadi.

Though U.S. officials would confirm the release of only eight prisoners, Associated Press quoted Iraqi attorney Badee Izzat Aref as saying that 24 or 25 officials had been released. His statement could not be immediately confirmed.

On Monday, a group known as the Islamic Army in Iraq posted a statement on the Internet, along with video that shows a man on his knees, blindfolded and handcuffed, as he is shot from behind. Whether the images are of Ronald Schulz, an American contractor in Baghdad, was unclear. In its statement, the group said that “the arrogance of Bush was a major reason for his killing.”

The Islamic Army in Iraq, which is believed to have ties to terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, allegedly kidnapped Schulz in Baghdad. On Dec. 6, it issued an Internet statement threatening to kill him unless all prisoners in Iraq were released. Two days later, the group announced that Schulz had been executed.

A number of Westerners have been kidnapped recently. A German archeologist was reported released in recent days, but four peace workers who disappeared Nov. 26 -- an American, a Briton and two Canadians -- remained missing Monday. Their abductors have demanded the release of all prisoners in Iraq

Thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped and held for ransom by criminals during the last two years as the security situation has deteriorated and violence has flared across the country.

The 24 hours ending Monday evening were no exception to the strife.

Iraqi officials said the attacks began Sunday evening when gunmen halted a truck convoy carrying construction material. The assailants shot five drivers and torched the convoy headed for Baqubah. On Monday morning, assailants fired on a convoy carrying a Baghdad official, killing three of his guards and injuring him, another guard and a doctor passing by.

An attacker set off a car bomb prematurely in a city east of Baqubah, injuring four people. In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives as an Iraqi police colonel drove by. The blast killed two civilians and injured the colonel, two bodyguards and five other civilians.

Outside the capital, insurgents’ bombs wounded three bodyguards of a Defense Ministry official in Basra and injured four civilians in Miqdadiya, Reuters news service reported.

Times staff writer Raheem Salman contributed to this report.