U.S. forces captured two senior figures of al Qaeda's branch in Iraq, the U.S. military said yesterday. The U.S. Marines said they captured two men who led cells in Anbar province for Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq network. The province, a center for the insurgency, includes the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. A Marine Corps statement identified the captured men as Saleh Arugayan Kahlil and Bassim Mohammed Hazeem. Their cells kidnapped and executed 11 Iraqi national guardsmen, carried out car bombings and other attacks in the Ramadi area and "smuggled foreign terrorists into the country," the Marines said. "This group is responsible for intimidating, attacking and murdering innocent Iraqi civilians, Iraqi police and security forces, and business and political leaders throughout the Anbar province," according to the statement.
Zarqawi's group, once known as Tawhid and Jihad, recently changed its name to Al Qaeda in Iraq and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's network. It has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks against U.S. troops and government forces. |