Maruf was vice president and a member of the Revolutionary Command Council

DUBAI, May 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Three more of 55 Iraqi leaders on a U.S. list of most-wanted figures from ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime are in Anglo-American custody, making a total of 18 in detention, the U.S. military said Friday, May 2.

Taha Muhyl al-Din Maruf was vice president and a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, the regime's top policy-making body, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement.

He is number 42 on the list and figures as the nine of diamonds in a deck of cards drawn up by the U.S. military to help their forces in Iraq track down the leaders, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Marouf, the only Kurd in the Baath leadership, was one of Iraq's two vice presidents but had little power.

His appointed in 1975 was largely seen as a gesture to the Kurdish minority.

Marouf, who joined the Baath Party in 1968, held several ministerial posts and served as ambassador to Italy, Malta and Albania.

The second figure detained was Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, deputy prime minister and the Office of Military Industrialization Director and number 16 on the list, Centcom said.

Huwaysh was in charge of Military Industrialization

Centcom gave no further information about when or where the men were captured or whether they had surrendered.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army's V Corps announced that Mizban Khadr Hadi, commander of one of four military regions set up on the eve of the U.S.-led war, was captured Thursday, May 1, in Baghdad.

He was placed in charge of the area that included the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and An-Najaf.

Hadi, 41 on the U.S. list, is a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council and a top Baath Party leader.

He had been a minister without portfolio since June 1982 and before that was governor of An-Najaf.

The new detentions bring to 18 the number of former Iraqi leaders now held by the Anglo-American forces.

Iraqi police have captured “former” finance minister Hikmat al-Azzawi and handed him over to U.S.-led forces, the Centcom said Saturday, April 19.

Former intelligence chief and half-brother to Saddam Hussein, Barzan al-Tikriti was captured in Baghdad on Wednesday, April 16, during a special forces operation with support from the U.S. Marines.

His brother, former interior minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan was arrested on April 13.

Hadi was commander of one of four military regions set up on the eve of the war

U.S. special forces captured top Baath Party official, Samir al-Aziz al-Najim, on Thursday night, according to the U.S. military. He was listed as regional command chairman for east Baghdad of the ruling party.

On April 12, Lieutenant General Amer al-Saadi, Saddam's chief scientific adviser, turned himself in to Anglo-American forces.

U.S. officials hope the officials who have turned themselves in or been captured -- including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz -- will help lead them to Saddam, the ace of spades.