The US says it has arrested a senior al-Qaeda commander who led operations in Afghanistan and plotted the assassination of Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president.
Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi, who was taken to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba this week, was intercepted as he was trying to reach Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday.
Bryan Whitman said al-Iraqi "was one of al-Qaeda's highest ranking and senior operatives at the time of his detention".
He was on his way to Iraq to manage al-Qaeda operations and possibly plot attacks against Western targets outside the country.
Al-Iraqi, who was held by the CIA before being turned over to US military authorities, was in charge of cross-border attacks against "coalition forces", working directly with the Taliban from 2002-2004, Whitman said.
"He also in recent years was involved in plots to assassinate perceived opponents of al-Qaeda to include Pakistan President Musharraf as well as other officials."
No comment
Whitman declined to comment on when and where al-Iraqi was captured or whether US forces were directly involved in the capture.
Al-Iraqi also met al-Qaeda members in Iran, but Whitman would not say when.
A factsheet released by the Pentagon said al-Iraqi believed that al-Qaeda members in Iran "should be doing more with the fight, including supporting efforts in Iraq and causing problems within Iran".
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| Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi is only known from grainy photos and videos AFP PHOTO/INTELCENTER |
Before September 11, 2001, he was a member of the al-Qaeda military committee that oversaw military and guerrilla operations and paramilitary training, according to the Pentagon.
He also was a member of a 10-member group of advisers to Osama bin Laden, and was known and trusted by the al-Qaeda leader and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, his deputy, the Pentagon said.
Al-Iraqi was born in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in 1961 and served in the Iraqi military before going to Afghanistan where he spent 15 years, it said.