Al-Azzawi Arrested, Turned Over to U.S. Forces
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There has been another high-profile arrest in Iraq. The announcement came from the U.S. Central Command overnight. Officials say Hikmat al-Azzawi was arrested at the home of a relative by Iraq's newly reestablished police force. Azzawi was number 45 on the coalitions most wanted list, and in case you're keeping track, he was Iraq's deputy prime minister as well as finance minister, and authorities say he may know where Saddam Hussein's regime hid huge stashes of money. We will see if he talks. With Azzawi's arrest, CENTCOM says it now has custody of five of the Iraqi leaders on its most wanted list. CNN's Patty Davis brings us up to date.</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi protesters marched on Baghdad, their demand that American troops leave. The U.S. says that's what it plans to do as soon as its work is done. The U.S. is making progress in job one, finding former Iraqi officials. The latest capture, the eight of diamonds of the U.S. top 55 most wanted. Hikmat al-Azzawi, Iraq's former deputy prime minister and finance minister.</s>LIEUTENANT GENERAL ED WORLEY, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: He was actually captured by Iraqi police force and turned over to us, and that's a clear indication of how smoothly things are working now with the initial transition of U.S. forces giving way to the local Iraqi police.</s>DAVIS: The U.S. hopes al-Azzawi can help lead them to hidden Iraqi wealth that it says was looted from Oil for Food Program. Even without al-Azzawi, U.S. troops stumbled upon hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in Baghdad; $650 million according to the "L.A. Times". Officials are hoping another big catch could aid in the search for Iraq's so far elusive weapons of mass destruction. Imad Hussayn al Ani, believed to have head Iraq's VX nerve agent program, turned himself in to U.S. troops inside Iraq.</s>RICK BARTON, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTL. STUDIES: Clearly we have been lacking first, top quality information and this should definitely improve the nature of the information that we have, so we should be seeing some improvements in that search in the near future.</s>DAVIS: Also surrendering to U.S. forces, a member of a Palestinian terrorist group, Abu Nidal, Khala Khader al-Salahat, who turned himself into Marines in Baghdad. So far though, no signs of Saddam Hussein or his sons.</s>DAVIS: Iraq's still a dangerous place. Today, an incident in which four soldiers and an Iraqi child were hurt. The child had come up to the soldiers who were on patrol in the streets of Baghdad, trying to turn in part of an unexploded cluster bomb. Unfortunately that cluster bomb, that piece exploded as one of those soldiers was trying to remove it from the child's hand. Anderson.</s>COOPER: Terrible news. Patty Davis, thanks very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com