Posted on 01/28/2005 1:16:47 PM PST by Eurotwit
THE arrests of two top lieutenants of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had put Iraqi security forces closer to capturing the Jordanian militant and eradicating his al-Qaeda-affiliated group, Iraq's deputy prime minister said today.
"I am hopeful, based on the evidence that we see, we are moving closer and closer to decimating and eliminating that threat from our country," Barham Saleh told reporters in Washington via a two-way video link from Baghdad. Earlier, Iraqi authorities announced the capture of Salah Salam Dubaig al-Ubaidi, also known as Abu Saif, who was believed to be Zarqawi's main commander in Baghdad, and Ali Mohamed Yassin Al-Issawi, another close aide who is also known as Abu Hassan.
Advertisement: Mr Saleh said the captures had given Iraqi authorities a much clearer picture of Zarqawi's network, which is believed to be responsible for many of the spectacular car bombings and high-profile assassinations aimed at derailing this weekend's national elections.
Abu Saif, whom Zarqawi recently named "emir" of Baghdad, told interrogators he met Zarqawi at least four times in December, while Abu Hassan claimed to have seen him 40 times over the past three months, Mr Saleh said.
Abu Hassan, said Mr Saleh, "claims to be the gatekeeper for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, like a chief logistical officer, arranging meetings for Zarqawi ... with members of his networks and other people planning and acting on terrorist operations".
"We are getting a better and better picture of the Zarqawi network based on the arrests that we have made over the past few weeks."
Asked how close authorities were to capturing Zarqawi, Mr Saleh said: "I hope close. But we cannot be complacent. We are after him. This is a dangerous man, responsible for the death of so many Iraqis and coalition members, and we are after him. Sooner or later, we will get him."
Mr Saleh said at least a dozen senior Zarqawi associates have been captured over the past two months, and more than 20 other members of his network had been rounded up.
Abu Saif, the Baghdad "emir", identified another recently captured Zarqawi lieutenant, Abu Omar al-Kurdi, as the bombmaker who carried out many of the attacks in Baghdad, including the May 17, 2004 assassination of the acting president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Abdul Zahra Osman Mohammed, known as Ezzedine Salim, according to Mr Saleh.
In announcing Kurdi's arrest earlier this week, the Iraqi government said he was responsible for 32 attacks, including the devastating 2003 bombing of the UN's Baghdad headquarters, which killed 22 people, including the world body's envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Kurdi's real name is Sami Mohammad Said al-Jaf.
When Zarqawi is finally captured, hope they let the world get to take a "bite" out of this murderer.
Wake me when it actually happens.
Will do :-)
The arrest or apprehension will occur on January 30th, coinciding with the Iraq election.
And I'm one step closer to winning that MegaLottery too!
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, Ted Kennedy, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
Why is it they all have at least two names? Even the good guys have aliases. Crazy.
Just an observation.
Exactly right - Each day we are taking more of these bad guys out of action - We are winning, freedom is winning (and the MSM hate it).
one of these days it will be true and I most likely won't believe it until about the 10th story on it.....sigh
Euro thank you for the ping.
That lottery is about to pay off......big. There has been a tipping point in the Zarqawi saga.... we just don't know who it was that they picked up......that is leading us to all these folks......someone high up in the Zarqawi is squealing like a pig.
Or they are getting closer and closer to a dry well.
Roger that ~ I'm happy that the terrorists are in the hands of Iraqi's as they will be able to extract the truth from these killers in a timely fashion ~ which further infuriates the lunatic left! :):)
Will Ramsey Clark be able to handle two clients at once?
Thanks very much, I saw the C-SPAN broadcast of this event and was hoping a transcript would get posted...
CSPAN covered this news conference?
LOL!
Do suppose this is going to become a new area of legal specialization?
if you got nothing else, use long names to make yourself important.
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