Important Arrest In Iraq
The Iraq government announced the capture of the second in command of al Qaeda in Iraq. They believe that the terrorist organization is suffering a severe crisis in leadership as the command structure is disintegrating.
BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 — Iraqi armed forces have arrested the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the country's national security leader said Sunday.
The leader, Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saaydi, was captured within the past few days near Baqubah, along with 20 other senior members of the Sunni Arab insurgent group, which was responsible for savage beheadings of kidnapped foreigners and suicide attacks that sometimes killed dozens of civilians in a single strike, said the security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
Saaydi was second to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Rubaie said. Masri had succeeded insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in June by a U.S. airstrike on a safe house in Baqubah.
"We now think al-Qaeda in Iraq is suffering a great deal and disintegrating," Rubaie said in a news conference at the U.S.-controlled Green Zone that was broadcast live across the Middle East. "The al-Qaeda organization is suffering from a leadership crisis."
Saaydi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, ordered the February attack on the golden-domed Shiite shrine in Samara that ignited the ongoing ferocious wave of sectarian killings, Rubaie said. He accused Saaydi of trying to spark a civil war between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiite Muslims.
News like this is encouraging, but there is still a lot of work to do, of course. An enormous amount of the violence being stirred is the fault of Iran, of course.
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The Real Ugly American.com » Blog Archive » Al-Qaeda #2 in Iraq captured by Iraqi forces — Sunday, 3 September , 2006 @ 9:53 am
