Iraqi security forces detain al-Qaida leader north of Baghdad TIKRIT, Iraq, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces have detained a senior al-Qaida leader during an overnight raid in Salahudin province, a provincial security source said on Friday.
The detention operation began late on Thursday when provincial security forces raided the Cars Market area in the northern provincial capital of Tikrit, 170 km north of Baghdad, and detained Abu Ahmed, a leader of al-Qaida Iraq's network in the province, Major Ahmed al-Fahal, from the provincial police of Salahudin told Xinhua.
Fahal clarified that the detainee is a financier of al-Qaida organization in Iraq's northern provinces of Salahudin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh, and he led several attacks against the Iraqi security forces in Salahudin.
On Monday, Iraqi security forces captured Abdul Khaliq Awad al-Sab'awi, leader of al-Qaida military operations in the northern Nineveh province, during an operation carried out at the al-Qadsiyah neighborhood in the city of Tikrit. The latest detention in Tikrit came as the U.S. and Iraqi security forces are conducting a major offensive in the northern province of Nineveh to uproot al-Qaida militants from their latest strongholds in Iraq.