Prime Minister Al-Maliki told the BBC today that Al-Qaeda leader al-Baghdadi was arrested this week in Iraq.
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-linked group, has been captured.
Al-Bawaba news released this photo with their report on the capture earlier in the week.
The BBC reported:
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.
Baghdadi is a nom de guerre for a shadowy figure thought to lead the Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella group of radical Sunni factions.
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.
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, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Prime Minister Maliki said Mr Baghdadi was being interrogated, and that the results would be made public.
Let’s hope the Iraqi officials are kind to him.
They will get just as much information from him that way.
Previously:
Al-Qaeda Leader Al-Baghdadi Captured in Iraq …Update: Untrue
