Denmark tries to find out if there was Dane among Iraqi rebels

Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said Friday he had asked the Danish Embassy in Baghdad to reopen an investigation of claims that a Danish national has been arrested in Iraq for fighting alongside insurgents. A previous investigation, triggered by a newspaper report citing Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr saying a Dane had been captured, was dropped after the embassy said Jabr had been misquoted.

However, Danish authorities decided to restart the investigation after U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said Thursday that there was a Dane among the 376 foreigners arrested in Iraq last year for joining the anti-American resistance, according to the AP.

"Based on the statement by the American major general, I have asked our embassy in Baghdad to find out whether this is new information," Moeller said. "We have to start a new investigation."

On Oct. 10, Jabr was quoted by the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat as saying that terrorists from Denmark, France and Italy are in Iraq. Danish diplomats asked Jabr for further details. He replied he had been misquoted and that there was no Danish suspect, the embassy said.

Denmark has some 500 troops in southern Iraq.

T.E.