Senior al-Qaida leader captured in Mosul
US-led forces captured a senior al-Qaida leader who was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths and housed foreign fighters who carried out suicide bombings, the US military said today.
The leader, who was not identified, was arrested in a raid in the northern city of Mosul on December 14, the military said in a statement.
“The terrorist leader was attempting to flee from the location when Coalition Forces chased him across a street and detained him,” the statement said.
It said the suspect served as al-Qaida’s military chief in Mosul in 2005, and then took up the same job in western Baghdad.
“During that time, he co-ordinated vehicle-borne improvised explosive-device attacks and kidnap-for-ransom operations in Baghdad,” the military said.
It cited reports that said he organised an attempt to shoot down a US military helicopter in May this year.
“After a few months he fled Baghdad due to Coalition Forces closing in on him,” the statement said.
The military said the capture would lead them closer to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over as leader of al-Qaida in Iraq after his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US air strike in June.
Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government’s national security adviser, said this month that 60% of al-Qaida in Iraq’s leadership has now been captured or killed.
Meanwhile, two suicide car bombers killed at least 12 people in separate attacks across the Iraqi capital, police said.
A suicide car bomber slammed into a police checkpoint in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district, killing 11 people and injuring 24, police said. The casualties included four killed policemen and six injured officers.
Hours later, police kept the neighbourhood cordoned off and morning commuters passed by the wreckage on foot.
Several prominent Iraqi politicians, including President Jalal Talabbani, reside in Jadriyah. The area is also home to Baghdad University.
One civilian was killed and four hurt when another suicide car bomb detonated near Kasra in north-eastern Baghdad, police said. The explosion also set fire to six parked cars, they said.
At least half a dozen other explosions were heard earlier in the day, some in the area of the Green Zone, where Iraq’s parliament and the US and British embassies are based. The US military said it had no information on the blasts.
In other violence, gunmen kidnapped six Sunni men at a fake checkpoint 15 miles south of Baghdad at dawn, police said. The men were intercepted as they drove north towards the capital, their cars loaded with fruit and vegetables to sell there.
Police also said a Palestinian teacher was killed in a drive-by shooting in eastern Baghdad.
Also during the day, Iraqi forces assumed security responsibilities in the relatively peaceful province of Najaf, marking the first such handover by US troops as Washington struggles to get Iraq’s fragile government to stand on its own.
US forces will remain on standby in case the security situation deteriorates.
Najaf was the third of Iraq’s 18 provinces to come under local control. British troops handed over the southern Muthana province in July, and the Italian military transferred Dhi Qar province in September.
