Irak — Forces Detain Insurgent Leaders in Iraq

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2010 — Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces arrest­ed eight alleged mem­bers of al-Qai­da in Iraq in recent com­bined oper­a­tions with Amer­i­can mil­i­tary advi­sors through­out cen­tral and north­ern Iraq, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed. In west­ern Bagh­dad today, Iraqi forces with their U.S. advi­sors arrest­ed an alleged asso­ciate mem­ber of al-Qai­da in Iraq. The sus­pect is believed to be “inti­mate­ly involved” in plan­ning and exe­cut­ing “high-pro­file attacks” in the area, offi­cials said. He was not the operation’s planned tar­get, but infor­ma­tion found dur­ing the search­es linked him to the al-Qai­da in Iraq leader, offi­cials said. 

In oper­a­tions yes­ter­day, sev­en alleged al-Qai­da in Iraq oper­a­tives were arrested: 

— Near Kirkuk, Iraqi forces and their U.S. advi­sors cap­tured a sus­pect­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq leader and four crim­i­nal accom­plices who are believed to be respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing mul­ti­ple bomb­ings on Iraqi forces in the region. 

— In west­ern Bagh­dad, Iraqi forces detained an indi­vid­ual sus­pect­ed to be con­nect­ed to an al-Qai­da in Iraq financier who is believed to be a sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor to vehi­cle bomb­ings against Iraqi forces. 

— Anoth­er indi­vid­ual with alleged ties to an al-Qai­da in Iraq leader was arrest­ed near Mosul dur­ing a search for an al-Qai­da in Iraq leader believed to be involved in bomb­ing attacks on local secu­ri­ty forces. Infor­ma­tion found­ing dur­ing the search­es linked the detained indi­vid­ual to the al-Qai­da in Iraq leader. 

Each oper­a­tion was con­duct­ed pur­suant to a court war­rant, offi­cials said. 

(Com­piled from U.S. Forces Iraq news releases.) 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)