IRAQ: U.S. and Iraqi forces arrest the second most senior figure of al Qaeda in Iraq

U.S. and Iraqi forces have arrested the second most senior figure of al Qaeda in Iraq, National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said on Sunday (September 3), adding the group was "severely wounded." He named the man as Hamed Juma Faris al-Suaidi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, and said he was the deputy to Abu Ayyub al-Masri who took over the Sunni Islamist insurgent group after U.S. troops killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June. "Today we announce the detention of the most important leader of al Qaeda after the criminal Abu Ayyub al-Masri. He is No 2 in the network, he is Hamed Juma Faris al-Suaidi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana. He is also the direct supervisor of the criminal Haytham al-Badri who planned for and bombed the Askari Shrine in Samarra. Al-Suaidi has implemented the policy of al Qaeda in Iraq and orders of Al-Zarqawi in igniting sectarian division in iraq through attempt to foment civil war between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites," he told a news conference. Rubaie said Suaidi was hiding in a building used by families, and intended to use children and women as human shields. But he did not say where in Iraq Suaidi was found. "Following Al-Zarqawi's death we managed to gather important intelligence information on Hamed al-Suaidi and his place and intelligence operations had led to his place in Salahuddin province and after that we monitored his movements and our information has indicated that he was moved in mid June and he was working outside Baquba in the same area where Al-Zarqawi was killed. The arrest took place few days ago with a number of his aides," Rubaie added. Rubaie said the arrest of Suaidi was a crushing blow to al Qaeda in Iraq. "Our armed forces have dealt a crushing blow to this organisation and we believe it will be a happy tiding for our Iraqi people and we believe that the confessions he made will have a significant impact on al Qaeda's operations and terrorist activities against our people., especially acts aimed at fuelling sectarian division among the people." "I can say that al Qaeda in Iraq is severely wounded," he added Iraqi and U.S. officials have blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for some of the bloodiest attacks against civilians in Iraq that they say are part of a campaign to ignite a sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis. An al Qaeda-linked group urged Sunnis this week to step up attacks against Shi'ites, empowered after U.S.-sponsored elections in Iraq.

ITN Source | September 3, 2006

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