7624U
07-18-2007, 07:21
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070718/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestqaedaus_070718130406;_ylt=AirEJkugCu45CQ tEtl9dfCYUewgF
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces have arrested a top Iraqi militant who acted as a link between Al-Qaeda's Iraqi offshoot and Osama bin Laden, the global jihadist network's Saudi founder, the US military said Wednesday.
Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said American troops had arrested Khaled al-Mashhadani, a senior Iraqi figure in a local group otherwise dominated by foreign-born extremists, on July 4 in the northern city of Mosul.
Under interrogation, he said, Mashhadani revealed that propaganda tapes released by Al-Qaeda in Iraq's supposed Iraqi kingpin, Omar al-Baghdadi, were in fact voiced by an actor under the command of an Egyptian militant.
"Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the Al-Qaeda in Iraq network. He is a close associate of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq," Bergner said.
The statement came at a time of intense dispute in Washington about the place of Iraq in the United States' global war on terror.
The US military sees Al-Qaeda as a foreign-led interloper rather than an Iraqi resistance group and wants to isolate it from support from nationalist Iraqis opposed to foreign interference.
Meanwhile, President George W. Bush and the White House are keen boost support for the war by tying Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq to bin Laden's network, which was behind the September 11 attacks on US soil.
Bush therefore argues that the war in Iraq is the central front of his war on terror, while his opponents counter that support for Al-Qaeda only erupted in Iraq as a result of anger at the US-led invasion.
Bergner said Al-Qaeda in Iraq was a "real organisation" taking its broad directions from bin Laden and his Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are believed to be holed up somewhere in northwest Pakistan.
"There is a flow of strategic decision, of prioritisation, of messaging from Al-Qaeda senior leaders to Al-Qaeda in Iraq leadership," he said.
"They continue to provide focus, direction to operations and flow of foreign terrorists to Iraq."
Mashhadani's picture, released at a Baghdad news conference, showed a man in his 40s with close cropped hair, and dressed in a pink collar shirt.
Bergner said Mashhadani was head of propaganda for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a local franchise that has sworn fealty to bin Laden, and acted as a "communication conduit" between Masri, bin Laden and Zawahiri.
His arrest also undid an elaborate deception operation designed to portray Al-Qaeda's foreign-led insurgency as a rebellion by Iraqi resistance fighters against the US occupation of Iraq, Bergner said.
Mashhadani oversaw the creation of a fictitious front organisation dubbed the "Islamic State of Iraq", said to be an umbrella body for Islamist militants headed by someone under the nom de guerre Omar al-Baghdadi.
"To make al-Baghdadi appear credible, al-Masri swore allegiance to al-Baghdadi and pledged to obey him, which was essentially swearing allegiance to himself, since he knew Baghdadi was fictitious," Bergner said.
The al-Baghdadi character's voice appeared on several propaganda tapes, but was in fact played by an actor called Abu Abdullah al-Naima, he alleged.
"Al-Qaeda in Iraq is led by a foreign group under Abu Ayyub al-Masri's leadership with rank and file Iraqis" working in different cells," he said.
"Mashhadani confirmed that Masri and the foreign leaders with whom he surrounds himself, not Iraqis, make the operational decisions ... Al-Qaeda in Iraq is run by foreigners not Iraqis."
Bergner's announcement will be seen as an attempt by US commanders to isolate Al-Qaeda, at a time when its Islamist insurgents are coming under pressure from former allies in Iraq's nationalist resistance.
US and Iraqi authorities often appear baffled about Masri's real identity.
On May 1 the Iraqi interior ministry announced that they had "strong" intelligence that Masri had been killed in clashes between insurgent groups.
Masri had also been reported dead in October last year and was said to have been wounded in February.
The US military believes Masri is an explosives expert specialising in manufacturing car bombs, a key weapon of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, and that he made his way to Iraq from Afghanistan after the March 2003 invasion.
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces have arrested a top Iraqi militant who acted as a link between Al-Qaeda's Iraqi offshoot and Osama bin Laden, the global jihadist network's Saudi founder, the US military said Wednesday.
Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said American troops had arrested Khaled al-Mashhadani, a senior Iraqi figure in a local group otherwise dominated by foreign-born extremists, on July 4 in the northern city of Mosul.
Under interrogation, he said, Mashhadani revealed that propaganda tapes released by Al-Qaeda in Iraq's supposed Iraqi kingpin, Omar al-Baghdadi, were in fact voiced by an actor under the command of an Egyptian militant.
"Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the Al-Qaeda in Iraq network. He is a close associate of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq," Bergner said.
The statement came at a time of intense dispute in Washington about the place of Iraq in the United States' global war on terror.
The US military sees Al-Qaeda as a foreign-led interloper rather than an Iraqi resistance group and wants to isolate it from support from nationalist Iraqis opposed to foreign interference.
Meanwhile, President George W. Bush and the White House are keen boost support for the war by tying Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq to bin Laden's network, which was behind the September 11 attacks on US soil.
Bush therefore argues that the war in Iraq is the central front of his war on terror, while his opponents counter that support for Al-Qaeda only erupted in Iraq as a result of anger at the US-led invasion.
Bergner said Al-Qaeda in Iraq was a "real organisation" taking its broad directions from bin Laden and his Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are believed to be holed up somewhere in northwest Pakistan.
"There is a flow of strategic decision, of prioritisation, of messaging from Al-Qaeda senior leaders to Al-Qaeda in Iraq leadership," he said.
"They continue to provide focus, direction to operations and flow of foreign terrorists to Iraq."
Mashhadani's picture, released at a Baghdad news conference, showed a man in his 40s with close cropped hair, and dressed in a pink collar shirt.
Bergner said Mashhadani was head of propaganda for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a local franchise that has sworn fealty to bin Laden, and acted as a "communication conduit" between Masri, bin Laden and Zawahiri.
His arrest also undid an elaborate deception operation designed to portray Al-Qaeda's foreign-led insurgency as a rebellion by Iraqi resistance fighters against the US occupation of Iraq, Bergner said.
Mashhadani oversaw the creation of a fictitious front organisation dubbed the "Islamic State of Iraq", said to be an umbrella body for Islamist militants headed by someone under the nom de guerre Omar al-Baghdadi.
"To make al-Baghdadi appear credible, al-Masri swore allegiance to al-Baghdadi and pledged to obey him, which was essentially swearing allegiance to himself, since he knew Baghdadi was fictitious," Bergner said.
The al-Baghdadi character's voice appeared on several propaganda tapes, but was in fact played by an actor called Abu Abdullah al-Naima, he alleged.
"Al-Qaeda in Iraq is led by a foreign group under Abu Ayyub al-Masri's leadership with rank and file Iraqis" working in different cells," he said.
"Mashhadani confirmed that Masri and the foreign leaders with whom he surrounds himself, not Iraqis, make the operational decisions ... Al-Qaeda in Iraq is run by foreigners not Iraqis."
Bergner's announcement will be seen as an attempt by US commanders to isolate Al-Qaeda, at a time when its Islamist insurgents are coming under pressure from former allies in Iraq's nationalist resistance.
US and Iraqi authorities often appear baffled about Masri's real identity.
On May 1 the Iraqi interior ministry announced that they had "strong" intelligence that Masri had been killed in clashes between insurgent groups.
Masri had also been reported dead in October last year and was said to have been wounded in February.
The US military believes Masri is an explosives expert specialising in manufacturing car bombs, a key weapon of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, and that he made his way to Iraq from Afghanistan after the March 2003 invasion.