after checking out of his Baghdad hotel
Iraqi police claimed they had arrested four suspects with links to Saddam Hussein's family. Iraqi security officials said Berg's alleged killers were part of a group led by a close relative of Saddam - his nephew Yasser al-Sabawi.
The men were seized a week ago after a tip-off, they said. All were former members of the Fedayeen Saddam, the para military group notorious for its loyalty to Iraq's ex-president.
But last night the US military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said American forces had arrested four men linked to the Berg case after a raid in Baghdad. Two had been released and two were still being questioned.
He said: '"I don't know their prior affiliations or prior organisations. We have some intelligence that would suggest they have knowledge, perhaps some culpability."
It was not clear whether the two raids were related.
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...The Iraqi police appear to have done a poor job of protecting their informant, who was killed by unidentified gunmen the following day...
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The uncertainty surrounding Berg's kidnapping intensified after US officials confirmed the FBI had questioned him three times after his arrest in the northern city of Mosul.
US occupation authorities have denied he was ever in American custody during his two weeks in detention there. But this week Berg's parents released an email from an American diplomat which confirmed he had been held by the US military and was "safe".
Luke Harding/Guardian UK May.22.04
