Bloomberg
By Caroline Alexander
April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s military said the arrest a month ago of al-Qaeda’s Baghdad chief helped security forces track down and kill two men described by the U.S. and Iraq as the network’s two most senior leaders in the country.
Manaf Abdul Raheem al-Rawi, the so-called governor of Baghdad, was arrested in the capital on March 11, Major General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad Military Command, said in an address televised by state-owned al-Iraqiya yesterday.
Al-Rawi planned and oversaw attacks in Baghdad last year on government buildings, hotels and universities, Atta said. His arrest was kept quiet so that officials could gather a “huge” amount of information on his organization, the spokesman said.
The arrest of al-Rawi enabled U.S. and Iraqi forces to kill Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayoub al-Masri in a joint raid on April 18, according to Atta. It also led to the death of Ahmad al-Obaidi, the network’s northern military commander, in another joint operation on April 20, he said.
--Editors: Heather Langan, Karl Maier
Business Week
