Iraqi security forces have reportedly managed to arrest two senior military commanders with links to the terrorist al-Qaeda network in Iraq's northern Nineveh province, Press TV reported.
A Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that judicial warrants to arrest the two men had been issued six months ago, and that their interrogation is being conducted by senior police officers.
Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq are said to have formed an alliance with Baath Party extremists loyal to the former dictator Saddam Hussein, a move American and Iraqi officials describe as a marriage of convenience. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is believed to supply the suicide bombers with explosives while the Baathist extremists provide the logistics and planning.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq was headed by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until he was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. His successor, Masri, was Zarqawi's close associate who has a US bounty of $ 5 million on his head.
Iraqi and US officials blame al-Qaeda in Iraq for most of the major bombings in the country, including an attack on a revered Shia shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that sparked a wave of sectarian carnage that nearly tipped Iraq into an all-out civil war.
However, many observers insists that US and UK have a joint and key interest and thus a hand in such terrorist bombings against purely civilian targets.