Iraqi army, U.S. Special Forces, Capture al Qaeda's "emir of Qayyarah"

Elements of the Iraqi army, with U.S. Special Forces as advisors, captured the alleged emir of Qayyarah for the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq yesterday in Qayyarah. The alleged emir directly leads 50 al Qaeda fighters, U.S. officials said.

During the operation, Iraqi army and U.S. Special Forces troops also detained three other individuals at the residence and recovered terrorist propaganda, passports and Korean currency.

Elsewhere, members of the Iraqi army, with U.S. Special Forces as advisors, detained three suspected insurgents linked to a rogue group of the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia during a series of operations yesterday in northern Baghdad. One team received small-arms fire but safely detained the primary and secondary suspects at the location without injury. The third suspect was detained at a separate target location.

The primary suspect is believed to be a rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi battalion commander and is suspected of organizing kidnappings and leading death squad killings of Sunni Muslim Iraqi citizens. Intelligence suggests he has been involved in more than half of the detonated improvised explosive devices in two of the northern districts of Baghdad.

The second suspect is an alleged rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi cell commander in northern Baghdad under the primary suspect’s control. The second suspect’s cell is accused of conducting death squad killings of Iraqi civilians and using improvised explosive devices against coalition forces.