Cairo, Egypt ? Iraqi officials said Sunday that Syrian authorities had captured Saddam Hussein’s half brother and 29 other officials of the deposed dictator’s Baath Party in Syria and handed them over to Iraq in an apparent goodwill gesture.

Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former Saddam adviser suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam, was captured in Hasakah in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, two senior Iraqi officials told The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity. Hasakah is about 30 miles from the Iraqi border.

They added that al-Hassan was captured and handed over to Iraqi authorities along with 29 other members of Saddam’s collapsed Baath Party, whose Syrian branch has been in power in Damascus since 1963.

Officials in interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed al-Hassan’s capture but gave no further details.

In Baghdad, U.S. military officials had no immediate comment.

The Iraqi officials did not specify when al-Hassan was captured, only saying he was detained following the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a blast in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 16 others.

Syria has come under intense scrutiny following Hariri’s death, with many in Lebanon blaming Damascus and Beirut’s pro-Syrian government for the killing. The United States and France also have called on Damascus to withdraw 15,000 Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Washington has long accused Syria of harboring and aiding former members of Saddam’s toppled Baathist regime suspected of involvement in the deadly insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

Al-Hassan was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis released by U.S. authorities after American troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, and he also was named one of the 29 most-wanted supporters of insurgents in Iraq. The United States had a $1 million bounty on his head.