Mosul Qaeda leader captured

 

By Salem Arif

 

Azzaman, March 14, 2007

 

Iraqi security forces have captured a top al-Qaeda leader who commanded operations in the northern city of Mosul, local television said.

 

The television said Mohammed Younis al-Hayali, who was northern Iraq’s number two al-Qaeda commander, was currently in Iraqi custody.

 

The television, quoting Iraqi security forces, did not say how Hayali was captured and where.

 

Mosul, the capital of the Province of Nineveh, is a major insurgent stronghold with anti-U.S. rebels in control of several districts in the city and numerous outlying villages and towns.

 

Meanwhile, Iraqi troops said they had captured 11 suspected insurgents in the city.

 

The government has deployed the Second Army division in the city under the command of Brigadier Muta al-Khazraji.

 

The restive city has defied both U.S. and Iraqi authorities whose repeated military operations to end violence there have all but failed.

 

Mosul is one of Iraq’s most strategic cities due to its oil wealth and proximity to the relative quiet Kurdish north.

 

There are fears that the upsurge in security in the city might spill over to the Kurdish province of Dahouk and Arbil, both bordering Nineveh.