DUBAI, May 7 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) – The American forces announced Wednesday, May 7, that Ghazi Hammud al-Ubaydi, a Baath Party Regional Command chairman and Baath military leader for Wasit governorate, was now in U.S. custody.

The U.S. Central Command (CentCom) gave no detail on how al-Ubaydi, who is number 32 on the American list of 55, had fallen in American hands.

This brings to 20 the number of “wanted” Iraqi officials held by the Anglo-American forces in Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

On Monday, May 5, a U.S. defense official said American troops had detained Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, the top female scientist involved in Iraq's weapons programs.

Ammash, 47, was the only woman on the 55-member American list, which is headed by ousted president Saddam Hussein.

On Friday, May 2, the U.S. forces announced that three more Iraqi officials were in its custody.

They were identified as Taha Muhyl al-Din Maruf, vice president and a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, deputy prime minister and the Office of Military Industrialization Director and Mizban Khadr Hadi, commander of one of four military regions set up on the eve of the U.S.-led war.

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, 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 also arrested on Sunday, April 13.

U.S. special forces captured had also captured top Baath Party official, Samir al-Aziz al-Najim. 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 had hoped the officials who have turned themselves in or been captured -- including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz -- will help lead them to Saddam.

However the ousted president and his two sons, Uday and Qussay, have so far escaped Anglo-American clutches.

In fact, an Australian newspaper reported Wednesday that its correspondent in Baghdad had obtained an audiotape allegedly recorded on Monday, April 28, by Saddam.

The Sydney Morning Herald said two men gave the tape to its correspondent after failing to deliver it to correspondents for the Arab TV station al-Jazeera.

U.S. officials admit they do not know if Saddam is dead or alive, but if the latter he is apparently sitting on nearly one billion dollars in cash removed on his orders from Iraq's central bank shortly before the start of the US-led war that deposed him.