Breakthrough against al-Qaeda

2005-01-24 16:01

Baghdad - Iraqi security forces have arrested a top lieutenant of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq who was behind 75% car bombings in Baghdad, the prime minister's office said on Monday.

Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a raid in Baghdad on January 15, a government statement said on Monday.

Two other militants linked to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group have also been arrested, authorities announced on Monday.

Al-Jaaf was "the most lethal of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's lieutenants," the statement said.

Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi heads al-Qaeda in Iraq, the terror network's local affiliate. The group is behind many of the car bombings, beheadings, assassinations and other attacks driving the insurgency in Iraq.

Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombing attacks that killed hundreds of Iraqis, the statement said.

"Abu Omar al-Kurdi claims responsibility for some of the most ruthless attacks on Iraqi police forces and police stations," said Thaer al-Naqib, spokesperson for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

The statement said the suspect "confessed to building approximately 75% of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad since March 2003", al-Naqib said.

Also on Monday, authorities announced that Iraqi security forces had also arrested a man described as the chief of al-Zarqawi's propaganda operations.

And in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi forces seized one of al-Zarqawi's weapons suppliers.

- AP