 Jordanian security forces have arrested a senior al Qaeda operative thought to be behind a spate of kidnappings and killings of foreigners, the state news agency said on Monday. A security official who requested anonymity was quoted by the agency as saying the man was an aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq. The militant was seized during a covert operation conducted by Jordanian secret agents inside Iraq, another security source told Reuters. The militant's identity and nationality were not disclosed.
| Jordanian covert ops within Iraq. I think that's a first confirmation, though lots of us have suspected such things... |
| I'll wager when Zarqawi is captured, it'll be by a 'Jordanian team" and he'll be wisked off to Jordan for trial. |
"The intelligence department has arrested one of the officials of al Qaeda in Iraq who has committed multiple crimes of theft and looting of trucks and kidnapping and killing of Jordanians and Arab citizens," the first security source told Reuters. More details about the arrested militant would be broadcast on state television on Tuesday, the state news agency reported. Zarqawi claimed responsibility for triple hotel bombings that killed 60 people in Amman in November, saying in an Internet audiotape that the hotels were home to U.S. and Israeli spies. He vowed more strikes against Jordan, which supported the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The state news agency did not say whether the arrested man's operations were carried out in Iraq or in Jordan, or whether he might be linked to the Amman attack. |