[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq confirmed the identity of a suspect captured last week as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, believed to be head of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-linked group.The arrest of al-Baghdadi could deal a blow to a weakened, yet still potent, insurgency in Iraq at a time when a rash of major bombings has cast a shadow over recent security gains. "As someone who works at the Defense Ministry and in the security field, I affirm that this is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi," Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry, told al-Iraqiya state television.
He said the arrest was carried out without American military assistance. "The operation was totally successful."
Baghdadi is said to be the head of the Islamic State of Iraq, close to al-Qaeda's main organization in Iraq, which is led by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.
Who, last we heard, had decamped for Pakistain.
Some experts have said they remain unconvinced that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi actually exists. They believe he is a fictional character invented by al-Qaeda in Iraq as a kind of corporate logo, a product of a propaganda initiative to put an Iraqi figurehead at the top of an organization that is otherwise foreign-run.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the BBC that the man was Baghdadi, and said that results of an investigation would be released. The U.S. military has not yet confirmed that it believes the man was in fact Baghdadi.
Iraqi officials have in the past claimed to have captured senior al-Qaeda operatives who later turned out to have been mistakenly identified.