The Pentagon has said it cannot confirm reports that Iraqi police captured and then unwittingly released al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2004. Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday: "That was rumoured a year ago and never proved to be confirmed." Earlier, Hussain Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister, said in a television interview that al-Zarqawi had been arrested by security forces in Falluja, but released because the forces did not know who he was. However, speaking later to Reuters news agency, Kamal said the story was many months old and contained no new information. "More than a year ago the Iraqi police in Falluja captured Zarqawi but released him after three or four hours because they did not recognise him," he told Reuters. "We captured a Saudi terrorist ... and he told us this information," he said. "I said that before."
"Things weren't stable in Falluja and the Interior Ministry was trying to organise; that's why they didn't recognise him," Kamal said, adding: "It won't be long before we capture him again though." His comments raised questions over the effectiveness and capability of Iraq's security forces a day after the apparent success of national elections held to form a new parliament.