A former Iraqi vice president on the coalition's most wanted list is in U.S. custody, Kurdish and U.S. officials told CNN Tuesday.

Taha Yasin Ramadan, number 20 on the coalition's most wanted list and the 10 of diamonds in the playing card deck of suspects, was captured by Kurdish fighters in Mosul on Monday and handed over to U.S. forces, sources with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. Ray Shephard confirmed Ramadan was in U.S. custody but could not confirm details of his capture. Pentagon sources in Washington told CNN that Ramadan had been handed over to U.S. forces.

Ramadan was the senior of two vice presidents in Saddam Hussein's regime and had been with Saddam since the start of his rise to power, CNN Correspondent Rym Brahimi said.

He is the 36th former Iraqi official on the top 55 list to be captured. Two others on the list are dead, two are suspected possibly dead, and one is described as "status unknown."

Ramadan, a Kurd born in Mosul, is believed to have coordinated the brutal suppression of the Shiite rebellion of 1991 in southern Iraq.

He is, like Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim and helped plot and carry out the 1968 coup that brought Saddam to power.

The former leader of the paramilitary Popular Army, Ramadan survived several assassination attempts through the Saddam years.

Ramadan was last seen during the war at a news conference March 29, after a suicide bomber killed four U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in the town of Najaf.

"This is only the beginning and you will hear more good news in the coming days," Ramadan said at that news conference. "These bastards will be welcomed at the level and in the way they deserve."

"We have the right to use any means," Ramadan said, calling on Iraqis "to attack them in their homes. We can have ... a suicide martyr that can kill 5,000 in one mission," he said.

To avoid that future, Ramadan told the U.S.-led coalition to, "pack your bags and leave us alone."