Defector Returns To Iraq, Saddam

The Iraqi general whose defection six months ago was seen as a major blow to Saddam Hussein’s government abandoned his exile in Jordan Tuesday and returned to Iraq with members of his family, including two daughters of the Iraqi leader.

An Iraqi government spokesman said that Saddam had forgiven the defector, Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel, and that he and those who fled with him would be welcomed back as ordinary citizens.

Kamel, who since the mid-1980s had headed Iraq’s secret weapons program, fled Iraq on Aug. 8. Clinton withholds visa for leader of IRA Washington D.C.