Senior Iraq al-Qaeda Figure Held

03/09/2006| IslamWeb

The second most senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, accused of masterminding the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra, has been detained by Iraqi and US forces. 

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, announced on Sunday that Hamed Juma Faris al-Suaidi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, had been arrested in an operation in mid-June.

Al-Rubaie said he was the deputy to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over control of al-Qaeda's Iraq operations after US troops killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June.

"During the raid, Saedi took shelter in a residential building,  but he was arrested without any harm to civilians," al-Rubaie added, without explaining why his arrest was not announced until nearly two months later.  

Al-Saedi is accused of ordering the February 22 bomb attack which demolished the Shia shrine in the town of Samarra, north of the capital.  

Al-Rubaie said that during the raid to capture al-Saedi, 11 other senior al-Qaeda operatives and nine lesser suspects were also detained.

"He was hiding in a building used by families, he wanted to use children and women as human shields as our forces attempted to capture him.

"He was directly responsible for the criminal Haitham al-Badri, the mastermind and the bomber of the Samarra shrine.

"I can say that al-Qaeda in Iraq is severely wounded," al-Rubaie said.

Samarra bombing

The bombing of the Shia shrine in February inflamed tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims and triggered reprisal attacks that still continue.

In June, al-Rubaie had announced the capture of a Tunisian al-Qaeda figure suspected of participating in the Samarra shrine bombing.  

Abu Qudama al-Tunisi was accused of taking an active part in  blowing up the mosque's golden dome on orders from an Iraqi  militant, Haitham al-Badri.  

On Sunday, al-Rubaie said that al-Badri had taken orders from al-Saedi to bomb the shrine. Al-Badri still remains at large.

Al-Zarqawi clue

Al-Rubaie said the authorities had obtained information about al-Suaidi after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air strike north of Baghdad.

The information indicated al-Suaidi had moved to northern Baghdad and had been operating outside Baquba, the same area where al-Zarqawi was killed.

Iraq and US officials have blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for some of the bloodiest attacks against civilians, which they say are part of a campaign to ignite a sectarian civil war between the majority Shia and minority Sunnis.

Photo Caption

Hamed Juma Faris al-Suaidi