Iraqi security forces arrested 39 suspected Qaida militants, including the group's leaders of Iraq's western province of Anbar, officials said on Saturday.
"The Iraqi security forces have captured 39 Qaida members and their leaders who ran terrorist operations in Anbar province," Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said in a televised news conference, Xinhua reported.
Bolani said that the detention of the Qaida members came by operations carried out by the Iraqi troops during the past five weeks in Anbar province, and some of the detainees were chased and captured in the provinces of Salahudin and Nineveh in north of Baghdad.
For his part, Major General Dhiyaa Hussien, head of counter- terrorism department in the Interior Ministry, told the news conference that Hazim Abdul Razzaq al-Zawi, minister of security for the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), was among the captured Qaida members, along with top leaders of Qaida group in Anbar.
Meanwhile, Hussien said that through interrogation with detainees, his department identified Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the top leader of ISI, whose real name is Ibrahim Awad al-Samarrie, and his minister of war, al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, whose real name is Nuaman Salman. Both are still at large. Earlier in the year, the Mujahdeen Shura Council (MSC), which is an al-Qaida-led umbrella organization of extremist Sunni militants groups, said it has chosen Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Quraishi as the emir, or leader of the "believers" to be the head of the ISI.
The MSC also named al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman as its " minister of war" for the ISI who vowed to continue deadly attacks with "dark days in blood color."
The appointment of the two Qaida leaders came after the killing of the two top Qaida leaders Abu Ayyub al-Musri and Abu Omer al- Baghdadi in a military operation by Iraqi and U.S. forces in April.
Both Iraqi and U.S. officials said the killing of Masri and Abu Omer al-Baghdadi dealt a big blow to al-Qaida in the war-torn country.
The frequent announcements of killing and arresting of Qaida top leaders and provincial leaders in Iraq is seen as victories for the country's security forces.
...