Irak — Iraqis Arrest Terror Group Members, Associates

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2010 — Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces arrest­ed two al-Qai­da in Iraq mem­bers and four sus­pect­ed crim­i­nal asso­ciates in com­bined oper­a­tions with U.S. advi­sors in Iraq today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Iraqi forces arrest­ed a sus­pect­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq mem­ber and a crim­i­nal asso­ciate north­west of Bagh­dad. The al-Qai­da in Iraq mem­ber is believed to have ties to the ter­ror organization’s senior lead­er­ship, offi­cials said. 

In Mosul, Iraqi forces and U.S. advi­sors searched a build­ing for a sus­pect­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq mem­ber alleged­ly linked to acquir­ing vehi­cles and weapons used to car­ry out assas­si­na­tions in the north­ern-Iraqi city. Offi­cials believe he also has close ties to the organization’s senior lead­er­ship. Infor­ma­tion and evi­dence gath­ered at the scene led Iraqi forces to iden­ti­fy and arrest a sus­pect­ed crim­i­nal asso­ciate of the want­ed man. 

In west­ern Bagh­dad, Iraqi forces and U.S. advi­sors searched two build­ings for a sus­pect­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq mem­ber who alleged­ly is respon­si­ble for vehi­cle-borne bomb­ing attacks against Iraqi civil­ians, Iraqi forces, the Iraqi gov­ern­ment and coali­tion forces. 

Infor­ma­tion and evi­dence gath­ered at the scene led Iraqi forces to iden­ti­fy and arrest the want­ed man and two sus­pect­ed crim­i­nal associates. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)