Iraqi Forces Arrest Top al-Qaeda Lieutenant

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Iraqi Forces Arrest Top al-Qaeda Lieutenant

James Joyner | Monday, January 24, 2005

Iraq forces arrest top al-Qaeda lieutenant (USA Today)

Iraqi security forces have arrested the “most lethal” top lieutenant of al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq â a man allegedly behind 75% of the car bombings in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion, the prime minister’s office said Monday. Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a Jan. 15 raid in Baghdad, a government statement said Monday. Two other militants linked to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terror group also have been arrested, authorities announced Monday.

Al-Jaaf was “the most lethal of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s lieutenants,” the statement said. Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi heads al-Qaeda in Iraq, the terror network’s local affiliate. The group is behind many of the car bombings, beheadings, assassinations and other attacks driving the insurgency in Iraq. Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombing attacks that killed hundreds of Iraqis, the statement said. “Abu Omar al-Kurdi claims responsibility for some of the most ruthless attacks on Iraqi police forces and police stations,” said Thaer al-Naqib, spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. The statement said al-Jaaf “confessed to building approximately 75% of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad since March 2003,” al-Naqib said.

Excellent.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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