 The arrest of al-Qaida in Iraq's second in command took place in June, and not a few days ago as the Iraqi government had initially announced, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured on June 19. Other suspects were in custody, he said, but their names have not yet been made public. | Now the remaining al-Qaida gunnies are wondering who's in custody and if they're talking. Heh heh |
National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie announced al-Saeedi's arrest Sunday, saying it had occurred a few days earlier. But Caldwell said al-Saeedi had been captured in June, and it was permission to make the arrest public that had been given a few days before. | After his brain had been sucked out and run through the blender. By now his friends would have figured out he was missing |
Caldwell said the arrest was the most significant since the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike, which also occurred in June.
| I'd wager the intel we got going through al-Zarqawi's stuff led to al-Saeedi's capture. |
He added that the man who masterminded the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra reported directly to al-Saeedi. That attack, 60 miles north of Baghdad, inflamed tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and triggered reprisals for months that have killed hundreds of Iraqis. |