Zarqawi aide captured
2006-02-27 17:08
Baghdad - Iraqi interior ministry forces
have captured a senior aide to al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, Iraqi state television said on Monday.
Iraqiya named the man as Abu Farouq and said he was captured
with five others in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi,
west of the capital.
It said Abu Farouq al-Suri, previously unknown to the media,
was captured by the Wolf Brigade, one of several
counter-insurgency units operating within the Shi'ite-run
interior ministry, but accused by Sunnis of targeting civilians
in their community.
The word Suri is Arabic for Syrian, indicating that the
captured man may have come from Iraq's western neighbour.
US military spokespeople were unaware of the capture.
US and Iraqi forces often report the capture of senior
al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq.
Iraqi intelligence officials have said Zarqawi's centre of
operations appeared to move last autumn from the western Anbar
province to the religiously mixed eastern province of Diyala.
Nationalist Sunni insurgents in Anbar had said they were
planning to set up a militia partly to fight al-Qaeda and its
network of foreign fighters.