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Baghdad: The Iraqi Interior Ministry reported the arrest on Monday of a top Al Qaida in Iraq figure in the northern city of Mosul, where security forces have been carrying out an intensified crackdown to root out the terror network.
But the US military, which is supporting the operation, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking confirmation. Reports of high-level Al Qaida arrests in the past have sometimes proven incorrect.
Abdul Khaliq Al Sabawi was captured in a morning raid in Salahuddin province, which neighbours Mosul's Ninevah province to the south, Major General Ahmed Taha, the director of the ministry's internal affairs office, said.
Some of Mosul's Al Qaida figures are believed to have fled or stayed out of the city before the sweep began more than a week ago.
So far, more than 1,300 people have been arrested in and around Mosul in the operation, though 240 were cleared of suspicion and released, said Major General Hussain Ali Kamal, the deputy interior minister for intelligence and security affairs.
AlSabawi was Al Qaida in Iraq's "wali" in Mosul, Taha said. The term "wali," Arabic for governor, is used by the terror network to refer to its top regional leaders. Taha did not give details on Al Sabawi or where he was arrested.
Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been the most prominent Al Qaida in Iraq urban stronghold since the group lost control of cities in the western province of Anbar over the past year.
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