US troops have detained a female Al Qaeda member headed by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, US military officials said on Friday. She is "someone who was picked up" within the last 30 days "and is part of the Zarqawi network. She is at Camp Cropper," Major General William Brandenburg, the head of US military detention operations in Iraq, said, adding that she was one of three females in custody. She is the only known female arrested who worked for Zarqawi's Organisation of Al Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers.The other two female detainees are Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as "Dr Germ" for helping Saddam Hussein make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biology researcher known as "Mrs Anthrax". The general said that if Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, was captured he would be in the US custody. "He would be ours, the coalition. We would detain him and the central court of Iraq would be the one that would prosecute him," Brandenburg said.
On the other hand, Zarqawi's group vowed to defeat "infidels and apostates" in a statement published on the Internet Friday in response to a Madrid conference on terrorism. "We tell the infidels and apostates, the enemies of God: whatever you do, you will be defeated. God promised us victory," read the statement from the Organisation of Al Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers, the authenticity of which could not be verified. The Madrid conference, grouping former presidents and heads of state of democratic countries, on Friday presented the "Madrid Agenda", a series of recommendations aimed at combating terrorism.