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BAGHDAD (AP) -- The leader of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq has been captured in a raid west of Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said Friday. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was captured Friday in a raid in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of the Baghdad security operation. U.S. officials had no confirmation of the capture. "One of the terrorists who was arrested with him confessed that the one in our hands is al-Baghdadi," al-Moussawi said. Al-Baghdadi has been identified in statements posted on Islamic extremist Web sites as the head of...

Insurgent leader 'held' in Iraq Iraqi forces captured al-Baghdadi in the Abu Ghraib area of the city A key leader of an al-Qaeda linked insurgent group has been arrested in Iraq, according to media reports.Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the self-styled leader of the Sunni Arab group the Islamic State in Iraq, was captured in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad. An Iraqi government official said Mr al-Baghdadi had been arrested after intelligence tip-offs. He heads an umbrella group of Sunni insurgent movements fighting the Iraqi government and US troops in Iraq. "He was captured this afternoon by Iraqi forces with...

March 9, 2007Release A070309aSuspected AQ Media Emir, alleged "Butcher" captured in raids BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces killed one terrorist and captured 16 suspected terrorists including an alleged al-Qaeda media emir during raids Friday morning throughout Iraq. In Mosul, Coalition Forces captured an al-Qaeda related suspect known as “The Butcher” who is allegedly responsible for numerous kidnappings, beheadings, and suicide operations in the Ramadi and Mosul areas.  Coalition Forces captured five additional suspects and killed one terrorist during the raid. During operations in Fallujah, Coalition Forces captured two suspected terrorists with alleged ties to foreign fighter facilitation. Northeast of Karmah,...

Al-Melaf cites a senior security official that said U.S. troops are in the process of building one of the largest military bases in Baghdad in the middle of Sadr City, the Mahdi Army’s stronghold. The source said that U.S. military officers met with city elders who overwhelmingly approved the U.S. decision, which they said would largely improve security in their district. According to the website, construction of the base will start soon and will employ a large number of the city’s impoverished youth. The Al-Shaheed Organization reports the discovery of a new mass grave during the construction of a new...

Daily Iraq Report for March 8, 2007 Army General David Petraeus, the commander of Multinational Forces Iraq, gave his first briefing from the theater early this morning. The surge in American forces to Iraq will now include an additional 4,600 troops. About 2,200 Military Police (MPs) will be deployed, along with 2,400 support troops. "The MPs will arrive in Iraq over the next few months and will be assigned to duties at detention centers, to provide route security for convoys and to mentor Iraqi police," notes American Forces Press Service. "Additionally, the Republic of Georgia has volunteered to send an...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents have sought to intensify attacks during a Baghdad security crackdown and additional U.S. forces will be sent to areas outside the capital where militant groups are regrouping, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Thursday. U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said the troop buildups outside Baghdad will focus on Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, a growing hotbed for suspected Sunni extremists fleeing the U.S.-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad. But Petraeus stressed that military force alone is "not sufficient" to end the violence in Iraq and political talks must eventually include some militant groups now opposing...

Adnan Al-Dulaimi Accord Front yesterday announced the establishment of a new political front with the Iraqi List led by Iyad Allawi with the title (the Iraqi National Front). Al-Dulaimi called for political groups from inside and outside the political process to join this front. Iraqi sources said that the National Dialogue Front led by Saleh Mutlaq and Reconciliation and Liberation Front headed paper Al-Jabouri, the Virtue Party within WIN the United Iraqi Alliance list headed by Abdul Aziz Hakim are in talks with the Front. The new alliance calls for dialogue with those who are not participating in the political...

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST BAGHDAD--The new strategy to secure Baghdad has been dubbed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as "Operation Imposing the Law." After weeks of waiting and anxiety it is finally under way, and early signs are encouraging. The government information campaign and the news about thousands of additional troops coming had a positive impact even before the operation started. Commanders and lieutenants of various militant groups abandoned their positions in Baghdad and in some cases fled the country. Diyala province, to the east of Baghdad, was the destination for many Sunni extremists, while Shiite militiamen...

Many die in Iraq cafe bomb attack A suicide bomber has killed at least 26 people in an attack on a cafe in a town north-east of Baghdad, police say.The attacker is reported to have walked into the cafe in the town of Balad Ruz and then detonated the device. At least 29 other people were also injured in the incident, a police spokesman told the AFP news agency. In a separate development, three US troops were killed by a roadside bomb attack in the capital, Baghdad, the US military said in a statement. The soldiers were hit as...

Daily Iraq Report for March 7, 2006 As we have noted several times in the past, as the Baghdad Security Plan begins to show progress inside the city, the likelihood is the attacks in the provinces will increase. Over the past 24 hours, two major attacks occurred in Hillah (Babil province) and Mosul (Niwena province). In Hillah, two suicide bombers attacks pilgrims flocking to Karbala to mark the end of a religious period.Over 115 were killed and 200 wounded. Today, another 5 Shia pilgrims were killed and 14 wounded just south of Baghdad. This morning, I attended a press conference...

As the Baghdad security operation takes shape, much of the violence continues to occur in the provinces outside the capital. The provinces of Diyala, Anbar, Babil, and portions of Salahadin are where many of the major attacks against Iraq and U.S. security forces, as well as Iraqi citizens, are occurring. Yesterday's bombing in Baghdad's book market was only the third major attack in the past nine days.************************Snip********************* The Iraqi led Baghdad Operational Command reported that security operations in the capital resulted in the death of six insurgents and the capture of 55, "including 5 of Arabic nationalities." Questions remain about...

Iraqi soldiers opened fire on an alleged would-be suicide bomber as he sped towards the checkpoint into Baghdad's al-Yarmuk neighborhood on Tuesday, killing him before the explosive-laden car could crash into the outpost. Two soldiers and one policeman were wounded.

Iraqi and American forces captured leader of the so-called Iraq Islamic State near Baghdad Monday, part of a wide-scale offensive against hideouts of Iraqi Islamic State militias. Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi, the Amir of the Iraqi Islamic State, and four of his aides were arrested near Baghdad, security sources, requesting anonymity, told KUNA. Iraqi and American forces were carrying out military operations against hideouts in southern and northern Baghdad, said the sources. Head of the national center for general command in the interior ministry brigadier Abdulkareem Khalaf refused to confirm the arrest but said "the next hourrs will witness interesting details."...

A suspected leader of the group Islamic State in Iraq, which has ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, was detained in northern Iraq on Sunday, Iraqi security forces reported. Muharib Mohammed Abdullah, aka Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, was arrested in a joint raid by Iraqi and US soldiers in the city of Duluiya. "This is a great success for the Iraqi security forces, comparable to the killing of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi," the Salaheddin provincial administration in the town of Tikrit said in a statement. Abdullah is a former legal expert from the city of Balad, north of Baghdad. The Islamic State...

The U.S. military has reached an agreement with representatives of the Shiite community in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave that will allow American forces to maintain a permanent presence in the militia stronghold for the first time since 2004, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Saturday. Under the agreement, the U.S. will open one of the joint security stations that are a prominent feature of the new Baghdad security plan, living alongside Iraqi forces in a police station just inside the impoverished neighborhood, said Rahim al-Daraji, one of Sadr City's two mayors. But there is still some uncertainty about the degree to...

The absence of U.S. forces inside Sadr City, the stronghold of radical, Iranian backed Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has been a glaring anomaly to those watching the development of the Baghdad Security Plan. Iraqi and U.S. forces have focused on deploying in the mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhoods where the sectarian violence and al-Qaeda suicide attacks have been the greatest. But all of this is about to change. U.S. and Iraqi forces will enter Sadr City in the next few days, establish at least one Joint Security Station, and begin clearing the neighborhoods, Reuters reports. ... The move into comes as Major...

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2007 – More than 600 Multi-National Division Baghdad soldiers and 550 Iraqi security forces began a clearing operation in the eastern Baghdad district known as Sadr City today, military officials reported. Meanwhile, operations in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq over the last few days have resulted in numerous terrorists being killed or detained and the discovery of large weapons caches. In Sadr City, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, with two Stryker companies from 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, began...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops met no resistance on Sunday when they searched homes for illegal weapons and carried out patrols in a Shi'ite militia bastion in Baghdad.The operations in Sadr City, stronghold of the Mehdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, could test Iraqi and U.S. determination to enforce a security crackdown regarded as a last attempt to stop Iraq sliding into all-out sectarian civil war."Deliberate clearing operations have begun in Sadr City," said U.S. military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver. More raids will follow in the coming days, he said. Editors Choice: Best picturesfrom the last 24 hours....

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers entered the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Sunday in the first major push into the area since an American-led security sweep began last month around Baghdad. Soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, but met no resistance in a district firmly in the hands of the Madhi Army militia led by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said Lt. Col. David Oclander.

US army asserted Saturday it arrested Al-Mahdi militia leader who is accused of killing three US soldiers in Iraq and that Iraqi military choppers participated in implementing the law for the first time. Fallujah police is meanwhile reported to have arrested three members of Al-Qaeda organization, one of which is suspected of attacking the Saqlawiyah Police station. Iraqi television said Iraqi military choppers participated for the first time in implementing law along with US troops.