|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Zarqawi Caught, Released in 2004
Leading al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was briefly taken into custody and then released last year by Iraqi security personnel who did not recognize him, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Oct. 6). Iraqi police near Fallujah “suspected this man” and held him in late 2004 “along with other members” of his group, said Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraqi deputy interior minister. “Afterward, he was released because we did not know the identity of this criminal,” Kamal told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. “He was not armed. He was like any other citizen who was suspected. There was a simple interrogation with him and he was released,” Kamal said. The brief capture occurred around the time of the November 2004 U.S. assault on Fallujah to push al-Qaeda and other insurgents out of the city. Thousands of people were subsequently taken into custody for limited interrogations before being released, AP reported. Zarqawi is suspected of masterminding a number of attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, and has been sentenced to death in Jordan in connection with the death of a U.S. aid worker. The Jordanian-born terrorist has also been connected to a foiled 2004 chemical attack in his home country (Robert Reid, Associated Press/phillyBurbs.com, Dec. 16).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
