Iraqi forces 'mistakenly released' al-Zarqawi last year

Iraqi security forces questioned terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Fallujah area last year but released him because they didn’t realise who he was, the deputy interior minister said today.

The deputy minister, Major General Hussein Kamal, said Iraqi police were suspicious about this man and “detained for about three or four hours".

“Iraqi police forces who were in Fallujah then did not have sophisticated equipment to take pictures of him or take his fingerprints,” Kamal said.

The Interior Ministry official said the incident occurred “when the city was controlled by the terrorists.” US forces over-ran Fallujah in November 2004, ending domination of the city by insurgents and Islamic extremists, including al-Zarqawi’s al Qaida in Iraq group.

Kamal said he had no details on whether al-Zarqawi was detained while walking in the street or whether he was stopped on a checkpoint. He added that the ministry first knew that al-Zarqawi was captured was after interrogating a Saudi citizen who survived a would-be suicide attack he was supposed to carry out Baghdad’s western neighbourhood of Mansour.

Saudi citizen Ahmed Abdullah al-Shayea, said in a television interview in January that he was tricked into driving a fuel truck that was then detonated by al Qaida operatives in Baghdad on Christmas Day 2004 in Mansour, killing nine people and badly injuring him.

Kamal said their own investigation after the al-Shayea comments also showed that al-Zarqawi was captured.

A US official said in Washington that American intelligence believed the detention was plausible.

There have been several reports of missed opportunities to capture al-Zarqawi, including an April 28 raid by US forces acting on a tip from local informants that militants reportedly including the terror leader were hiding in a hospital in Ramadi.

Al Qaida in Iraq and Iraqi officials also denied reports last month that al-Zarqawi was among those killed in a raid and gunfight in the northern city of Mosul.

“We tell al-Zarqawi that the day will come when he faces Iraqi justice and stand trial,” Kamal said.

Al-Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Iraq along with the kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners, has a $25m (€20.6m) bounty on his head.

He also drew criticism in his home country of Jordan after his insurgent group claimed responsibility for the deadly November 9 attacks on hotels in Amman.

Jordan sentenced al-Zarqawi to death in absentia for planning a terror plot that led to the 2002 killing of US aid worker Laurence Foley. He has claimed responsibility for several other plots in Jordan, including a foiled April 2004 chemical attack.