The CIA has captured a senior al Qaeda commander who served as a liaison between al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and the terrorist group’s franchise in Iraq. U .S. military and intelligence officials announced Friday that Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a native of Mosul in northern Iraq, was captured in late 2006 as he tried to re-enter the country.
This week, after more than four months of interrogations, the CIA transferred him to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Al-Iraqi joined 14 other designated high-value detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Officials would not disclose what, if anything, al-Iraqi told CIA interrogators about the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. Officials would not identify the country in which al-Iraqi was nabbed.
A U.S. intelligence official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said al-Iraqi provided “significant amounts of information” on al Qaeda’s current structure. The official said al-Iraqi was advocating attacks on Iranian targets as well as more bombings in Iraq.
“He was released to Department of Defense custody after the U.S government determined he was no longer of immediate intelligence value,” the intelligence official said.
Al-Iraqi served as liaison between bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, and Abu Musab Zarqawi. The Jordanian-born Zarqawi formed al Qaeda in Iraq in 2004, pledged allegiance to bin Laden and oversaw hundreds of suicide bombings that have killed thousands of Iraqis. A U.S. airstrike killed Zarqawi in June 2006.
A second U.S. intelligence official told The Examiner that Hadi al-Iraqi lived in and around the Pakistan city of Quetta. He traveled to Iraq, via Iran, to deliver messages to al Qaeda commanders, the source said.
The State Department’s Rewards For Justice program, which offered $1 million for information leading to his capture, describes al-Iraqi as “one of Osama bin Laden’s top global deputies, personally chosen by bin Laden to monitor al Qaeda operations in Iraq … [al-Iraqi is reportedly still in contact with Osama bin Laden.”
Al-Iraqi rose to the rank of major in Saddam Hussein’s army before leaving Iraq to join al Qaeda in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet occupation and then operate terrorist training camps.
“He has a reputation for being a skilled, intelligent and experienced commander and is an extremely well-respected al Qaeda leader,” the Rewards For Justice wanted poster states.
