Ammash received her PhD in microbiology from the University of Missouri-Columbia

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. forces have taken into custody the top female scientist involved in Iraq's weapons of the so-called "mass destruction" program, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a U.S. defense official said Monday, May 5.

Ammash, the five of hearts in the deck of U.S. playing cards featuring 55 most wanted Iraqis, was the only woman on the list. Described as a "weapons of mass destruction scientist," she was number 53 on the list.

"This would be very important to the coalition in their ability to get additional information about the scope of the 'biological warfare' program", a U.S. official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), on condition of anonymity.

Ammash, dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax" by the tabloid press, surfaced in a videotape of Saddam Hussein meeting with his top advisers which was aired shortly after the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, news agencies said.

She was appointed to Iraq's ruling Baath Party's regional command in 2001 and is believed to have been a leader of its biological warfare program, according to U.S. sources.

Born in Baghdad in 1953, she completed graduate studies in microbiology in the United States, receiving a master's degree from the University of Texas College of Women in 1979, and a PHD from the University of Missouri in 1983.

She was a professor of microbiology at Baghdad University and the dean of the College of Science.

Ammash was trained by Nassir al-Hindawi, described by United Nations inspectors as the father of Iraq's biological weapons program. In one of several videos of Saddam, Ammash was the only woman among about a half-dozen men seated around the meeting table, news agencies reported.

In another development, the U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday, May 4, the United States will have to rely on low-ranking Iraqi officials from Saddam Hussein's government to disclose the existence of what he called, the banned chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

American forces gate-crashed the house of Iraqi scientist Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash last month, but could not find her.