Iraqi army forces arrested a senior member of al- Qaeda Saturday south of Baghdad, according to a police source, DPA reported.
Mozahem Mohammed Horan is believed to be the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in the al-Latifiya area, some 40 kilometres south of the capital, the source added.
Deadly attacks that left dozens of Iraqis killed in the past weeks were described as acts of revenge by al-Qaeda.
These came after several of al-Qaeda's senior leaders had been arrested or killed, including Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the group's leader in Iraq, and Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Sunni Islamist insurgency in the country.
On Friday, al-Qaeda announced in an statement posted on Islamist websites that it had named a new "war minister" after the death of the two commanders.