Two Zarqawi associates arrested

A top Iraqi security official said today the government has arrested two close associates of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi just days before historic elections that Zarqawi’s group has pledged to disrupt.

Qassim Dawoud, a top security adviser in the government of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, gave few details of the two arrested men, but said one had headed Zarqawi’s operations in Baghdad.

The two were “important leading members” of Zarqawi’s group, said Dawoud, the minister of state for national security in Allawi’s government.

Zarqawi’s group is blamed for a series of deadly attacks in Iraq. US officials have said other attacks have been carried out by former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime and that is unclear if the two groups are co-ordinating.