BAGHDAD, Dec 30: The chief suspect in an attack on a DHL aircraft over the Iraqi capital last month died in US custody after soldiers wounded him in a firefight, the US military said on Tuesday.

Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt also said troops had arrested 101 suspected combatants in 29 raids and 40 offensive operations over the last 24 hours.

“Ziad Sahid, a former director of military intelligence... suspected of responsibility for attacks on coalition forces to include the downing of the DHL jetliner, died in a coalition medical facility of wounds received during a targeted raid on his complex,” Brig Kimmitt told reporters.

Ziad Sahid died on Saturday, he said. But it was not clear when troops raided his house in the course of its week-old Operation Iron Grip, a mission combining heavy weapons fire on suspected rebel positions and sweeps for top suspects around Baghdad.

A DHL airliner was hit by a surface-to-air missile in late November, prompting the cancellation of civilian flights to Iraq, although the German-owned international courier has since resumed services.

BAQUBA: In the hotspot town of Baquba, the US Fourth Infantry Division captured eight or nine men, one of whom was a staff general for intelligence under Saddam Hussein, a US official said.

The official identified the men captured in the town as members of the “Al Bandar terrorist cell”.—AFP