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US
forces and Iraqi police detained two leaders of
Islamist cells linked to al-Qaeda terror chief in
Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the US military said
today.
The arrests came in two restive cities of the Sunni
Muslim insurgency, Mosul and Baquba.
Yesterday, Iraqi police netted two Islamic
extremists in Baquba, 60 kilometres north-east of
Baghdad, the military said.
Police captured Karem Abed Ibrahim, who has "ties to
the Zarqawi network in Baghdad", said Colonel Dana
Pittard, head of the 1st Infantry Division in Baquba.
"It'll put a dent in the insurgency."
Colonel Pittard also said US forces and police had
detained a Wahhabi fundamentalist cleric, Sheikh
Yusef, who had plotted attacks against US and Iraqi
forces.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government announced the
capture of a Zarqawi follower in Mosul, the third
detention of a member of the al-Qaeda-linked
movement in the northern city since late December.
The US forces arrested Abdul Aziz Sadun Ahmed
Hamduni, whose nomme de guerre is Abu Ahmed, the
government said in a statement.
Abu Ahmed served as deputy to Zarqawi's "emir"
(prince), or top lieutenant, in Mosul, named Abu
Talha and led operations in the flashpoint city when
his boss was absent, the government said.
"Abu Ahmed's capture removed one of Abu Talha's most
valuable officers from the Mosul-based terrorist
network. Abu Ahmed remains in detention and is
providing information regarding the Talha network,"
the government said.
The Iraqi government had already announced the
arrest of two other suspected Zarqawi aides in the
late December time frame.
Fadil Hussein Ahmed al-Kurdi, a 26-year-old Kurd,
and two other suspects were caught in a raid by
US-led forces, the government announced on December
30, without specifying when the arrest occurred.
It said Kurdi was also known as Abu Ubaida al-Kurdi
or simply Ridha, who coordinated the movement of
fighters in and out of Iraq.
Ridha is the brother of Omar Baziyani, also a
suspected Zarqawi partisan who was captured in May
by US-led forces in Baghdad, it said.
The government announced on December 28 the capture
of Abu Marwan, a "key leader" of the Zarqawi network
in the northern city of Mosul on December 23.
The crackdown on Zarqawi-allied fighters follows two
months of intense fighting in Mosul, Iraq's
third-largest city.
The arrests came after a suicide bomber penetrated a
US military base in Mosul and killed 22 people, 18
of them Americans, in the deadliest single attack on
US forces in Iraq.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
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