 Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been arrested in Iraq, according to the country's defence ministry.
| We don't have U.S. confirmation as yet... |
The arrest occurred in the northern city of Mosul and was reported on al-Arabiya TV and Iraqi state television late on Thursday.
| Mosul remains a Qaeda hotspot... |
Al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was detained in a joint Iraqi-US operation.
| Which leads me to believe the U.S. should be aware if a big fish is caught... |
He was caught in the Tayran area in central Mosul, 360km northwest of Baghdad, reportedly after police received a tip off of his location. The US military did not immediately confirm the arrest.
He is the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who was killed by a US air attack in 2006. The pair were close associates and al-Muhajir had a US bounty of $5m on his head. Al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Zarqawi in 1982 according to US officials.
| That'd be al-Tawhid. Zarq and Abu Qatada founded it. I notice Abu Q just made bail in Britain a day or two ago. |
He then graduated to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 before travelling to Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003. |