The arrest of al-Qaida in Iraq's second in command took place in June, and not a few days ago as the Iraqi government had initially announced, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured on June 19. Other suspects were in custody, he said, but their names have not yet been made public. Now the remaining al-Qaida gunnies are wondering who's in custody and if they're talking. Heh heh |
National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie announced al-Saeedi's arrest Sunday, saying it had occurred a few days earlier. But Caldwell said al-Saeedi had been captured in June, and it was permission to make the arrest public that had been given a few days before. After his brain had been sucked out and run through the blender. By now his friends would have figured out he was missing | Caldwell said the arrest was the most significant since the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike, which also occurred in June.
I'd wager the intel we got going through al-Zarqawi's stuff led to al-Saeedi's capture. | He added that the man who masterminded the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra reported directly to al-Saeedi. That attack, 60 miles north of Baghdad, inflamed tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and triggered reprisals for months that have killed hundreds of Iraqis. |