From CNN:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Al Qaeda’s No. 2 operative in Iraq, Hamed Juma Faris al-Suaidi, has been arrested, the U.S. military and Iraq’s national security adviser announced Sunday.
Al-Suaidi, also known as Abu Rana and Abu Humam, is said to be second in command in the terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq, behind Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Al-Masri succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after he was killed during a U.S. airstrike in June.
“This is a very important development,” Iraq’s Planning Minister Barham Salih told CNN.
“It comes in the wake of killing of Zarqawi and also a number of Zarqawi associates. Deliberate intelligence work both by Iraqi forces as well as multinational forces have dealt a very severe blow to al Qaeda organization in Iraq.”
This is excellent news. But at the same time, policy makers must be cautious not to be lulled into a false sense that al-Qaeda is the only game in town, or that its members are the only bearers of the doctrine of jihad at work in Iraq, and elsewhere in the world.
Al-Suaidi and one of his followers were captured during a raid Friday that ended in a residential building, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said at a news conference, according to CNN translators.
Important information on al-Suaidi and his location that led to his arrest was gained after former al Qaeda in Iraq leader al-Zarqawi’s death.
“We continued to track him down [in the Salaheddin province] and then he moved to north of Baquba in mid-June,” al-Rubaie said. “He was arrested without any harm to civilians.”
The security adviser added that Al-Suaidi was “directly responsible” for Haitham al-Badri, the man believed to have been the mastermind of the Askariya Mosque bombing in Samarra in February. Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife escalated after that attack.