Lebanese troops surround Saddam's hit-man in hiding

ONE OF Saddam Hussein's most ruthless hit-men faces arrest by the Lebanese police in the next 36 hours as a deadline to close Iraq's embassy in Beirut and hand over its resident assassin approaches.

Hadi Hassan, now identified as the murderer of one of President Saddam's Iraqi opponents here nine days ago, is believed to be hiding inside the Iraqi compound, which is surrounded by Interior Security Force troops at Hazmiyeh, on the hills above Beirut.

Iraq's charge d'affaires, Awad Fakhri, denies that Mr Hassan is in the embassy or his diplomatic staff had anything to do with the killing of Sheikh Taleb al-Suhail on 12 April, even though one of Mr Fakhri's staff has spilt the beans to the Lebanese police. The police have found the murder weapon - a silenced Beretta pistol - inside a suitcase which an Iraqi embassy official dumped on the beach at Jounieh, north of the capital.

The police have discovered that Saddam Hussein took the decision to kill Suhail in November, dispatching Mr Hassan to Lebanon just before Christmas with instructions to liquidate the man who instigated the failed military coup in Baghdad last year.

Mohamed Faris Al-Khadem, listed as a cultural attache at the embassy, obtained Suhail's address in the Ein el-Tini district of Beirut, from the sheikh's tailor, Georges Kattajian, and persuaded him that an Iraqi diplomat should deliver shirts to the shiekh.

Mr Khadem received two shirts and drove to Ein el-Tini with Mr Hassan, who had a Beretta pistol and silencer. Mr Hassan, who is not registered on the Iraqi diplomatic list in Beirut, entered the building alone and shot Suhail twice, killing him.

Mr Hassan left the shirts beside Suhail's body. From this, the police learned about Mohamed Khadem. He and Mr Hassan had fled to the Jounieh home of Ali Darwish, the Iraqi consul. Another diplomat, Khaled Khalaf, ordered Mr Hassan to go to the embassy.

The Lebanese government said the two arrested diplomats would be stripped of their immunity and charged with murder and Mr Hassan must be handed to the police at once. Diplomatic relations with Iraq were broken and Mr Fakhri was given 72 hours to close the embassy and leave Lebanon.