High ranking al Qaeda leaders who have been caught or killed have turned out to be former high ranking military or intelligence officers in Saddam Hussein's regime. Abdel Fatih Isa - former Iraqi Army officer and al Qaeda emir
Ahmad Hasan Kaka al-'Ubaydi - Ahmad Hasan Kaka al-'Ubaydi is a former Iraqi Intelligence Service officer, and is now believed associated with Ansar Al Islam affiliate.
Rafid Ibrahim Fattah - He traveled throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq for the last 15 years, forming a relationship with al-Qaida in 1999. He served as a liaison between terrorist networks, as an operations officer coordinating the activities of the various terrorist groups, and as a security chief for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. military.
Kurdi moved to Iraq in 1992, joining the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan.
Muhammed Hila Hammad Ubaydi - aka Abu Ayman, Until his capture, Abu Ayman, the former aide to the Chief of Staff of Intelligence during the Saddam Hussein regime for 30 years, was the leader of the Secret Islamic Army in the Northern Babil Province . Abu Ayman has strong ties to terror leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, still considered the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq .
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri - possibly dead, "The former vice chairman of Saddam's Baathist Revolutionary Command Council. He swore fealty to Zarqawi last year and commands a significant element of the Baathist/al Qaeda converts. H has significant links in Syria and is an important source of funding for al Qaeda in Iraq (link)."
Unidentified man - "The man who was killed was later identified as a retired officer in the Iraqi Air Force serving under the Saddam Hussein regime. The male who initiated the gunfire is a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist for whom the troops were searching, as well as the retired officer's son. "
Abu Asim - A former Special Republican Guard officer under Saddam Hussein, authorities believe Abu Asim has been active within the insurgency since the fall of the former regime. Associate of Abu Musab al Zarqawi
Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud Al-Mashadani, "the former leader of the Military Bureau in Baghdad during the Saddam Hussein regime, was apprehended by security forces in a military operation conducted at a farm in the northeast of Baghdad," a government statement said."
Abu Talha, also known as Mohammed Khalaf Shkarah al-Hamadani , a key facilitator and financier for al Qaeda, the purported head of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's terror cell and former member of Saddam Hussein's once ruling Baath Party and a warrant officer in the former Iraqi army
Abed Dawood Suleiman and his son, Raed Abed Dawood, - Abed was a former Iraqi general believed to be Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's "military adviser", his son Raed was a former Army captain in the Iraqi army.