Zarqawi Barely Avoids Capture in Iraq -Minister
Thu Feb 3, 3:48 PM ET Top Stories - Reuters
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi security forces may have come
close to capturing Iraqi al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the
past two weeks and are weakening his network, Iraq (news - web
sites)'s interior minister said on Thursday.
"We are following him," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib told Pentagon
(news - web sites) reporters in a video conference from Baghdad. "I
think we missed him twice or three times, but hopefully next time we
will be able to capture him.
"I think we arrived a bit late. Maybe we missed him by one hour. ...
You know, he is not staying in one place. He is moving from one area
to another. So, we will get him -- very soon, hopefully," Naqib added.
Rumors of Zarqawi's capture have surfaced in recent weeks, including
reports a month ago that he had been apprehended in the insurgent
stronghold of Baquba, north of Baghdad.
The minister declined to provide details of the latest raids,
including where they occurred and whether they involved joint
U.S.-Iraqi operations. But he said Zarqawi's support network had been
weakened with the arrests of more than 350 "terrorists" in the three
weeks before Sunday's election.
"We have weakened them very much and we are continuing to weaken them,
and hopefully in a very short time nobody will hear about Zarqawi and
his group," Naqib said.
Zarqawi is a Jordanian Sunni Muslim who leads the al Qaeda network in
Iraq. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous car bombings
and other deadly attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq and on Iraqi
police and other security forces.
Even as the minister spoke on Thursday, insurgents ambushed a group of
Iraqi police who were on their way to Baghdad from the south, killing
at least two.
At a Pentagon news conference later in the day, a senior U.S. general
said that "nobody knows how many times we may have passed, or not
passed, close to Zarqawi."
"Our special operators, their (Iraqi) special operators are working
very hard to get Zarqawi," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman
of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. He said the
search was being pressed "with the same vigor" as that for former
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), who was captured by
American troops in December 2003.
Naqib declined to say when U.S.-led military coalition forces should
begin withdrawing from Iraq, but said Iraqi security forces -- helped
by American military trainers -- were making major strides and would
be ready to take over security of the country and its borders in 18
months.
President Bush (news - web sites) has refused to put a timetable on
the withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops, stressing that America
would not leave until Iraqi forces could protect their people.
"According to our plans ... in coordination with our friends and the
multinational forces, I think we will be able to have a strong Iraqi
security and a strong Ministry of Interior in Iraq that can control
the security situation in Iraq in 18 months," Naqib told reporters.
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