U.S. and Iraqi forces captured more than 100 suspected guerrillas in raids across the country, arresting one of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence chiefs and another Iraqi believed involved in a suicide bombing last month, a U.S. commander said Thursday. The raids on Wednesday and Thursday occurred as daily attacks on U.S. forces are climbing after a recent lull. Rebels lobbed a mortar shell Thursday at a checkpoint near Baghdad International Airport, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding another. The military also counted a few high-level rebel suspects in a string of recent arrests. Chief among them was former Brig. Gen. Abu Aymad al-Tikriti, who was head of military intelligence in northern Iraq under Saddam’s regime, Kimmitt said. Al-Tikriti, believed to have commanded a guerrilla cell, was arrested along with three others near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit on Thursday. On Wednesday, U.S. forces captured Majid Ali Abbas al-Dazi, suspected to have coordinated a suicide truck bombing Jan. 24 in the central town of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad.
This guy should be rather interesting to hear from, since most of the suicide bombings are said to have been coordinated by al-Qaeda rather than the Baathists. This guy could be more of the link between al-Douri and Ansar al-Islam that we’ve been told about in the past. |