Iraqi Government Says Al Qaeda Leader Captured

By Cernig

The London Times:

The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been arrested, the Iraqi Defence Ministry claimed tonight.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri was captured in the northern city of Mosul.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian, was detained in a joint Iraqi-US operation. The US military said it had no information on the reports at this stage.

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. Al-Masri, was Zarqawi's close associate, and has a US bounty of $5 million on his head.

I certainly hope it's true, because people like this should be brought to justice, but the Iraqi government had made announcements of captures before that have turned out to be optimistic.

(Update: Spencer Ackerman just pointed out to me that the London Times announced last May that Al Masri had been killed. There's good cause for a grain or two of salt.)

If it is true, I've two predictions - that the pro-occupation crowd will hail it as yet another last corner, and that it won't really make any difference to events in Iraq. The Sunni and Shiite faction-fights are now entirely independent of Al Qaeda's influence while AQI's activities in Mosul and beyond, based upon a cell system, will hardly be slowed by the loss of their leader. As former counter-terrorism czar Michael Sheehan told Newsweek two days ago "we underestimated Al Qaeda's capabilities before 9/11 and overestimated them after" (hat tip - Kat). Shehan points out that its the individuals who really reach across the cell structure that you want to target - and those people are technicians rather than leaders. He points to Indonesia as an example:

Several high-profile associates of bin Laden were nailed there in the two years after 9/11, then sent off to secret CIA prisons for interrogation. The suspects are now at Guantánamo. But suicide bombings continued until police using forensic evidence - pieces of car bombs and pieces of the suicide bombers - tracked down Dr. Azahari bin Husin, "the Demolition Man," and the little group around him. In a November 2005 shootout the cops killed Dr. Azahari and crushed his cell. After that such attacks in Indonesia stopped.

Its the demolition men, not the talking heads, that count. Still, it's always nice to see one of those talking heads captured.

Update Nope, it wasn't Al Masri. (Hat tip to reader Floridian)

A man seized by Iraqi forces is not the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, despite earlier announcements by several Iraqi officials that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been captured.

Iraqi security sources, speaking to Reuters, had already begun to cast doubt on the earlier announcement that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been captured in an operation in Mosul on Wednesday. One senior security source in Mosul told Reuters the man seized in that raid was an Iraqi.

U.S. military spokeswoman Peggy Kageleiry said "neither coalition forces nor Iraqi security forces detained or killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri. This guy had a similar name." She said Friday that no additional details were being provided.

Comments

[a Floridian]

This story is incorrect. Look at today's story: U.S. denies Iraq claims of terror leader’s arrest

Man seized by Iraqi forces is not al-Masri after all, American military says

BAGHDAD - A man seized by Iraqi forces is not the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, despite earlier announcements by several Iraqi officials that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been captured.

Iraqi security sources, speaking to Reuters, had already begun to cast doubt on the earlier announcement that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been captured in an operation in Mosul on Wednesday. One senior security source in Mosul told Reuters the man seized in that raid was an Iraqi.

U.S. military spokeswoman Peggy Kageleiry said "neither coalition forces nor Iraqi security forces detained or killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri. This guy had a similar name." She said Friday that no additional details were being provided.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24527960/

[Batocchio]

But good news, citizens! Another glorious victory means the war has moved appreciably closer to its end!

[Harry R. Sohl]

A man seized by Iraqi forces is not the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday

Oh, Christ, was it another taxi driver?

[Cole]

I'm amazed they admitted it. Usually every single person that they capture is some sort of higher up in Al Qaida. I've always thought that Al Qaida has some sort of neverending supply of leaders. It's like an assembly line. Kill or capture one, and the next one just takes their place.
Of course, most of them are not AQ leaders, and couldn't blow up a baloon, let alone a bomb.