BAGHDAD — The deputy commander of a radical Sunni Islamic group linked to al-Qaida has been arrested in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
The group, Ansar al-Islam, is believed by the military to be behind attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops in Mosul, considered the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq, and elsewhere in the country.
Fakri Hadi Gari, also known as Abu Abbas and Mullah Halgurd, and nine other suspected members were arrested July 24 during a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation, the U.S. military said.
Gari is accused of organizing attacks as well as recruiting and financing operations, the military said. He also is accused of coordinating the movement of insurgents across the borders of Iraq.
Spanish authorities have said a cell connected to a group also named Ansar al-Islam was behind the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombings that killed 191 people and wounded about 1,800. It is not clear that the two groups are the same.
Man identified
Meanwhile, the Iraqi military identified the man suspected of killing a well-known Iraqi TV journalist, who was abducted while covering the Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of a Shiite mosque north of Baghdad. Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi told reporters that Yasser Mohammad al-Takhy was arrested Saturday in Baghdad along with three others. Al-Moussawi released a videotaped confession of the man in which he said he was working with an al-Qaida-backed group.
by the associated press
No comments:
Post a Comment