http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17539985/
Iraq: Al-Qaida-linked insurgent caught No U.S. confirmation; suspect reportedly heads Islamic State of Iraq
The Associated Press Updated: 3:00 p.m. CT March 9, 2007
BAGHDAD - The leader of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has been captured in a raid west of Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said Friday.
U.S. officials had no confirmation of the statement by Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of the Baghdad security operation.
Al-Moussawi said al-Baghdadi was captured Friday in a raid in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
"One of the terrorists who was arrested with him confessed that the one in our hands is al-Baghdadi," al-Moussawi said.
A prominent Iraqi Shiite close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also said al-Baghdadi had been captured. But he spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.
Al-Baghdadi, also known as Abu Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, has been identified in statements posted on Islamic extremist Web sites as the head of the Islamic State, which was proclaimed last year after the death of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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