Al Qaeda Leader In Iraq Arrested
The leader of al Qaeda's wing in Iraq has been arrested, according to a TV report quoting the Iraqi Defence Ministry.
Abu Hamza al Muhajir, was arrested in Iraq, the Arabic television station al Arabiya reported.
It said he had been detained in a joint Iraqi-US operation in Mosul in the north of the country.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was headed by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al Zarqawi until he was killed in a US air strike in June, 2006.
His successor, Muhajir, an Egyptian also known as Abu Ayyab al-Masri, was Zarqawi's close associate, and has a US bounty of $5m on his head.
In October 2006, the al Qaeda-led Mujahideen Shura Council said it had set up the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni militant affiliates and tribal leaders led by Abu Omar al Baghdadi.
In April, 2007, it named a 10-man "cabinet", including Muhajir as its war minister.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said last May that Masri had been killed, but soon afterwards al Qaeda released an audio tape purportedly from him.
In an hour-long audio tape issued last month, Muhajir called for renewed attacks on American troops.
He urged militants from the Sunni Islamist group to "celebrate" the recent announcement that the number of US troops killed in Iraq had passed 4,000.
"We must celebrate this event in our special way, and make the defeated Bush join us in this celebration," he said.
He called on al Qaeda fighters to provide "a head of an American as a present to the trickster Bush" in a month-long campaign that he called the "Attack of Righteousness".
Al Qaeda in Iraq shares a name and ideology if not organisational ties with Osama bin Laden's network, which was blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Senior Al Qaeda Member Arrested
Saturday, November 16, 2002
WASHINGTON — A "senior Al Qaeda member" has been arrested and is being held in an undisclosed country, U.S. officials told Fox News on Friday.The officials did not reveal any details of the circumstances surrounding the arrest, including when it occurred or where the suspect was being held. But sources did confirm that a senior Al Qaeda leader is "in U.S. hands."
Sources said the suspect was neither Usama bin Laden nor his number two man, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, but is one of the "top handful of Al Qaeda leaders."
"Someone who knows Al Qaeda would know his name," one official said. "This is a big deal."
Sources told Fox News authorities were trying to get the Al Qaeda leader out of the country where he was arrested.
The description was deliberately vague because this is an "ongoing operation," sources told Fox News.
Officials called the arrest of this "big fish" a significant intelligence victory, comparable to the capture of Al Qaeda chief of operations Abu Zubaydah, who has reportedly provided a wealth of information about the terror network since being taken into custody.
Zubaydah, who was captured in March, remains held in an undisclosed location, as are several lesser-known Al Qaeda figures.
The loss of some of bin Laden's top lieutenants has contributed to the decentralization of the terror threat, officials have said. Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's top military commander, was killed by a U.S. military and CIA airstrike last year.
Other leaders, like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, another operational planner whom officials believe masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks, continue to plot terrorist strikes, U.S. counterterrorism officials said.
Of these surviving card-carrying Al Qaeda operatives, many have gone to Pakistan. Some are in the cities, including the operatives who worked with American Jose Padilla in Lahore and Karachi before his capture in Chicago.
Others are believed to be in the remote tribal belt of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.
News of the latest arrest came just three days after the Al-Jazeera television network broadcast an audiotape believed to have been made by bin Laden, in which he warned U.S. allies to back away from plans to attack Iraq.
The last certain evidence bin Laden or any other top Al Qaeda leader was alive came in a videotape of him having dinner with some of his deputies, which is believed to have been filmed on Nov. 9, 2001.
News of the arrest also came just hours after the FBI issued warnings of Al Qaeda plans for a "spectacular" attack intended to disrupt the American economy and cause mass casualties. The bulletin did not say where, when or how such an attack might occur.
"Some suggest Al Qaeda may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy and maximum psychological trauma," says the alert, posted on the FBI's Web site early Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq's Leader Is Arrested in Mosul, AP Reports May 8 ...
| Al-Qaeda in Iraq's Leader Is Arrested in Mosul, AP Reports May 8 (Bloomberg) -- The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been arrested, the ... - 2008-05-08 |
those killed, Agence France-Presse cited Bergner as saying. ...
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