THE capture of Saddam Hussein is one step closure after two of the coalition's most wanted members of the former Iraq regime were taken prisoner, opposition groups in the country are convinced.

They could also lead to the whereabouts of the deposed dictator's weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam's son-in-law Jamal Mustafa Sultan Abdallah al-Tikriti, who has surrendered after returning to Baghdad from Damascus, in Syria, was one of the Iraqi leader's trusted inner circle.

Married to Saddam's younger daughter, Hala, he is listed as the nine of clubs in a pack of cards handed out to US troops showing the 55 most wanted figures of Saddam's regime. Saddam is as the ace of spades.

Jamal reportedly stayed close to his father-in-law right to the end - even though Saddam had had his two other sons-in-law executed in the mid 1990s.

Moments after he gave himself up, US Central Command announced that Saddam's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Humam Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafar - the four of hearts - was in coalition custody.

Yasser Alaskary, media affairs director of the opposition group Iraqi Prospect Organisation, said Jamal was bound to know Saddam's whereabouts.

"Saddam is very close to all his sons and daughters and Hala is very likely to know where he is."

Ahmed Shames, chair of the Iraqi Prospect Organisation, said Jamal was "known to be very loyal and part of Saddam's inner circle".

"He comes from Tikrit, where Saddam comes from himself. After Saddam and his sons, he probably knows the most about what is going on."

Jamal was responsible for "communications" within the Republican Palace.

Mystery still surrounds the despot's fate following an air strike on a Baghdad restaurant on Monday, April 7.

If he survived, commentators have speculated he may have fled to Syria, where Jamal negotiated his surrender.