Iraqi security officials said they captured one of the most wanted leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Sunni insurgency Thursday, an arrest that could deliver a significant blow to an intensified campaign of attacks. Two separate suicide bombings killed at least 69 people.
The officials identified the arrested man as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi who leads the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni militant factions that is believed dominated by al Qaeda in Iraq. However in the past, Iraqi officials have reported al-Baghdadi's arrest or killing, only to later say they were wrong.
The US military has even said al-Baghdadi could be a fictitious character used to give an Iraqi face to an organisation dominated by foreign al Qaeda fighters. In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the US military was working to verify who was captured.
``I can't confirm the capture of a senior al Qaeda member or that it was Baghdadi,' he said. But he said he had no reason to doubt the credibility of the report. ``I certainly hope that it's true,' he said, adding that his capture ``would be very good news.' Al-Baghdadi has been a key target for US and Iraqi forces for years. But little is known about his origins or real influence over insurgent groups.
Those groups have staged a series of high-profile attacks in recent weeks, apparently including the two suicide blasts Thursday in Baghdad and north of the capital in Diyala province. Iraqi state television quoted military spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi as saying al-Baghdadi was arrested in Baghdad. Security officials also told The Associated Press he was captured.
In 2007, Iraq's government reported that al-Baghdadi had been killed and released photos of what it said was his body. Later, security officials said they had arrested al-Baghdadi. In both cases, the US military said at the time it could not be confirmed and the reports turned out not to be true. In March, a 17-minute audio message attributed to al-Baghdadi called Washington's announcement of a troop withdrawal timetable from Iraq ``recognition of defeat.'
The statement was carried on militant Web sites. Thursday's attacks were the latest in a series of high-profile bombings that have raised concern of an uptick in violence as the US military scales back its forces before a planned withdrawal by the end of 2011.
American soldiers who specialise in clearing bombs from roads boarded a plane Thursday from Iraq to the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan, part of the largest movement of personnel and equipment between the two war fronts. In the Baghdad bombing, a suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Iraqis collecting humanitarian aid in a mainly Shiite area, killing at least 22 people, the military said.
The attacker struck as police were distributing Iraqi Red Crescent food parcels in the central neighbourhood of Karradah, the main Baghdad military spokesman said. It not immediately clear who carried out the attack, but one witness said it appeared to be a woman.
Women have been used in suicide bombings in Iraq, most recently during a February 13 attack on Shiite pilgrims in Musayyib. Some police were among the 22 people killed and 35 people were wounded, the military said. North of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed 47 people, including Iranian pilgrims, in a crowded restaurant, said Iraqi and US military officials.
Military spokesman Derrick Cheng said 47 people were killed and about 69 were wounded when the suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest near Muqdadiyah, an insurgent hotbed about 60 miles (90 kilometers) north-east of Baghdad. Iraqi police and hospital officials put the death toll at 40, including 37 Iranian pilgrims. They said another 65 were wounded.
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