Got a Big Fish in Iraq
Charles Johnson
Thu Jun 16, 2005 at 10:10 am PDT • Views: 480
Top Zarqawi aide captured in Iraq’s Mosul: US.
MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - A top aide to Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, the US military revealed.
Mohammed Khalaf Shakar, also known as Abu Talha, is “Zarqawi’s most trusted operations agent in all of Iraq,” a military statement said Thursday.
“This is a major defeat for the Al-Qaeda’s terrorist organisation in Iraq. Zarqawi’s leader in Mosul is out of business,” said US Air Force Brigadier General Donald Alston.
According to the military statement, he surrendered to US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday without a fight in “a quiet neighbourhood in Mosul” after they were led to his whereabouts by “multiple intelligence sources.”
“According to former Talha associates, Talha never stayed more than one night at any one residence,” the statement added.
Alston, the new top military spokesman, told reporters in Baghdad: “Numerous reports indicated he wore a suicide vest 24 hours a day and stated he would never surrender. Instead Talha gave up without a fight.”
Frank says: