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