US military announces major Al-Qaeda arrest | World News - Hindustan Times
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US military announces major Al-Qaeda arrest

AP | By, Baghdad
Jul 19, 2007 10:05 AM IST

The US command has announced the arrest of an Al-Qaeda leader it said served as the link between the organisation's command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's inner circle.

The US command has announced the arrest of an Al-Qaeda leader it said served as the link between the organisation's command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's inner circle, enabling it to wield considerable influence over the Iraqi group.

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The announcement was made on Wednesday as the White House steps up efforts to link the war in Iraq to the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks, with a growing number of Americans opposing the Iraq conflict. Some independent analysts question the extent of Al-Qaeda's role in Iraq.

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Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was the highest-ranking Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq leadership when he was captured July 4 in Mosul, US military spokesman Brig Gen Kevin Bergner said.

Bergner told reporters that al-Mashhadani carried messages from bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, to the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

"There is a clear connection between al-Qaida in Iraq and al-Qaida senior leadership outside Iraq," Bergner said.

He said al-Mashhadani had told interrogators that al-Qaida's global leadership provides "directions, they continue to provide a focus for operations" and "they continue to flow foreign fighters into Iraq, foreign terrorists."

The relationship between bin Laden and the al-Qaida in Iraq leadership has long been the subject of debate. Some private analysts believe the foreign-based leadership plays a minor role in day-to-day operations.

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