al-Baghdadi arrested

[Ironduke]

Good news from Iraq...

Top militant 'arrested in Iraq'

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said that a man arrested in Baghdad last week is a top figure in the al-Qaeda-related insurgency.

Mr Maliki told the BBC Abu Omar al-Baghdadi had been tracked for more than two months by Iraqi security services.

His arrest was reported last Thursday but the reports were not confirmed.

Al-Baghdadi is a nom de guerre for a shadowy figure thought to lead the Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella group of radical Sunni militant groups.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad, Mr Maliki disclosed that a purely Iraqi intelligence operation had tracked the wanted man's movements from the inside.

Nom de guerre

He had been identified by former close associates who had worked with him, and attended his inauguration as leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella organisation of which al-Qaeda in Iraq is part.

Prime Minister Maliki said al-Baghdadi was being interrogated, and that the results would be made public.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is a shadowy figure - some US commanders have even cast doubt on his very existence, our correspondent says.

The name is a nom de guerre - Iraqi officials say his real name is Ahmad Abid Ahmad Khamis al-Majmai, though he has also been known under other names.

The capture or killing of other senior al-Qaeda or related leaders in the past has not on its own made a perceptible difference to the state of the insurgency, our correspondent adds.

Protest

The arrest of Baghdadi on Thursday came amid an upsurge of the violence in Iraq.

About 150 were killed in just two days, sparking fears of a slide back into the bloody chaos that was a hallmark of Iraq following the US-led invasion.

Meanwhile on Sunday, a woman was shot dead during a US raid on a house in the southern Iraqi town of Kut in which at least five people were arrested.

The US military said she had been nearby during the operation, and had moved into the line of fire.

But the death was condemned as a crime by the local provincial council, and hundreds of people gathered at the local morgue to protest, reported the Associated Press news agency.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Top militant 'arrested in Iraq'

[Merlin]

He is a shadowy figure whose capture or death have been reported more than once.

In this case, the US said his capture still cannot be confirmed. On the other hand, if Iraq is not very sure, the Iraq PM would not come forward to openly mention and confirm he had been captured.

[3ACR_Scout]

That's great news if it's confirmed. We were always on the lookout for that guy in Diyala, and the rumors were always around that he had been spotted here and there. I'd like to see what he really looks like if this is him.

Dave

[Merlin]

A publically released video has been made of his confession.

Iraq TV airs alleged confession of terrorist leader

18 May BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government released what it said was the confession of a top terrorist leader in the country Monday, nearly a month after the government claimed to have captured him.

Government-run Iraqiya TV showed a news conference by Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, and a short clip of a man the government says is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi....

[Emmanuel]

Al-Jazeera aired a new tape today in which Abu Omar al-Baghdadi accused the Iraqi government of “outright lying”. In the brief excerpt that I had heard form Al-Jazeera—the original tape has not been posted yet on jihadist forums—al-Baghdadi responds to the recent televised confessions of Ahmad al-Majma’i, who the Iraqi government claims is the real al-Baghdadi.

In the new tape, al-Baghdadi highlights the “contradiction [among] the leaders of the security forces”; a likely allusion to what Sherwan al-Wa’ili had claimed about the captured man’s name and background, and the story given by the Baghdad Operations Command.

Al-Baghdadi believes that this is a “ploy” to force him to come out in a video recording that would reveal his real identity. He claims that he is known by “name and face” to many of the leaders of the jihadist groups.
Al-Baghdadi adds that the voice that we’ve been hearing on his speeches is his own, and not of a spokesman or someone reading in his stead. He claims it is easy to verify that it's been the same voice all along.

This latest Al-Jazeera recording—al-Baghdadi’s seventeenth speech by my count—is likely to further embarrass the Maliki government that has made a very big deal of the alleged arrest, and have further used the ‘confessions’ to skewer the Islamic Party, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament that has been working to undermine Maliki through the threat of a no confidence vote.

Yesterday, Maliki’s press advisor Yassin Majid claimed in an interview with Radio Nawa that al-Baghdadi’s arrest was “more dangerous and more important” than Saddam’s capture. Majid called al-Baghdadi the “head of evil” and tied the arrest to the prowess of the Iraqi security forces that gives the lie to anyone who says that the Iraqis are unprepared for the aftermath of the proposed American withdrawal.

Da’awa Party MP and Maliki ally Ali al-Adib raised the stakes by stating that al-Baghdadi’s confessions tying the Islamic Party, the Ba’ath Party and Al-Qaeda together are likely to realign politics in Iraq.

And for more of the media circus surrounding this whole event, Tariq Harb, the ‘celebrity lawyer’ has announced that al-Majma’i’s wife is trying to hire him to defend her husband.

Furthermore, local officials in Diyala province now claim that the man who was shown in the confessions served as a member of the municipal council of the town of Buhriz in 2005 under the name “Ahmed al-Ahmadi.”

I just want to remind you all that I don’t buy the claim that the man who has been arrested is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. Maliki’s people are digging themselves into a deeper hole with every passing day, ending up with what is potentially a major political embarrassment for a government that’s built its name and credibility of the issue of security.

I'd even go so far as saying that is episode may be an election game changer, since it will begin to sow doubts as to whether Maliki really has a handle on the security situation, not to mention the tension unleashed by accusing the Islamic Party of complicity with Al-Qaeda. This last point could be the trigger for a no confidence vote in parliament.
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[Merlin]

Emmanuel, Do post more information on this matter when it is available, including the links if possible.

[Merlin]

Here is some info on this new tape that denies al Baghdadi's capture.

Audio tape denies capture of Iraq insurgent leader

8 hrs ago BAGHDAD (AP) — The self-described leader of an al-Qaida front group issued a new audio tape this weekend, deepening the mystery surrounding the identity of the insurgent leader whom the Iraqi government claims to have in custody and whose very existence the U.S. once questioned.

The man purporting to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of Iraq, issued the usual litany of militant rhetoric against the West in the 40-minute tape that was posted Saturday on militant Web sites. ...

The speaker also said the Iraqi government's claim that it had captured him was "a pure lie," adding the detainee who has confessed to being him was an impostor.

"The primary goal of their lie is to pressure us to physically appear in a visual production," he said. "It is a stupid trick."

The audio could not be independently confirmed, but the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors such Web sites said the voice seemed like that of the person previously identified as al-Baghdadi.

It was the latest development in the drama surrounding the Iraqi government's April 23 announcement that they had arrested al-Baghdadi.

The issue has implications for the professionalism of the Iraqi security forces, which handled the arrest without U.S. assistance, as well as for the Sunni insurgency.

Past Iraqi claims to have captured or killed al-Baghdadi turned out to be wrong, and the Islamic State of Iraq has issued at least two other denials of al-Baghdadi's capture.

The U.S. military has not confirmed the suspect's identity. But the government has been insistent that this time it has its man. ...

[Shek]

Emmanuel, Do post more information on this matter when it is available, including the links if possible.

Merlin,
Emmanuel posted a blog entry from Nibras Kazimi's blog, Talisman Gate ???? ????????: More Twists in the ?al-Baghdadi? Saga.

[3ACR_Scout]

It's interesting that I can't find any reference to this arrest in recent headlines on CNN's website. Is it that CNN has just lost interest in successes in Iraq, or do they think the arrest has been discounted, so they've let it drop?

I guess we wait for the voice analysis to confirm if the new tape matches previous ones. Or maybe he made a tape in advance to discount his own capture in the event it were to happen...

Dave

[Merlin]

Shek, why I wrote that was to ask Emmanuel to continue posting more information on the tape when he's got it. After that, I found a AP news agency link and I posted it.

[Shek]

Shek, why I wrote that was to ask Emmanuel to continue posting more information on the tape when he's got it. After that, I found a AP news agency link and I posted it.

Merlin - got it. My post was to the person where Emmanuel got the post and the best English source I've found to all things Iraq (whether you agree with his view point is another thing, but he's a great aggregator and translator of Arabic press).

[Merlin]

It's interesting that I can't find any reference to this arrest in recent headlines on CNN's website.

If you can't find it in your usual online news website, go to 'Google News' and key in 'al Baghdadi'. There you'll find related news from many news sites.