BAGHDAD - US and Iraqi forces captured two top militants overnight including one from a gang that may have been involved in the abduction of five Britons in Baghdad in May, the US military commander in Iraq said on Saturday.General David Petraeus named the two militants as Al Hilfi and Abu Tiba. He said Hilfi was the leader of a secret cell of ‘extremist elements’ within the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr. He told a news conference with visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that Abu Tiba was a member of the Ajur Al Dulaimi gang, which ‘may be associated with some of the British citizens who were kidnapped recently’.
Petraeus, who did not give the full names of the militants, did not say if Abu Tiba was part of the Mehdi Army, or whether the gang he mentioned had links to it. Speaking about Hilfi, he said: ‘Al Hilfi is the head of the secret cells in the Jaish Al Mahdi (Mehdi Army) for all of Baghdad, so that’s a very significant capture.’
The US military said in a separate statement that one militant was killed and 10 detained in the operations, which Sadr City residents said took place early on Saturday. Police said six people were killed and 20 wounded.