ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

After nearly a week of negotiations, Iraq's former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad surrendered Friday to U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to coalition officials and a mediator for the former minister.

Speaking from Mosul, Dawood Bagistani, the mediator for Ahmad, told CNN that Ahmad turned himself over to Maj. Gen. David Petraeus with the "utmost respect."

The U.S. military would not confirm the report.

Bagistani said he hopes the Americans will keep their promise to remove Ahmad from U.S. Central Command's list of its 55 most wanted members of the former Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein. Ahmad was number 27 -- the 8 of hearts.