Iraq arrests Zarqawi’s top assassin

The top assassin for terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi has been captured in Iraq, as the U.S. military ratchets up pre-election raids to find and destroy the insurgency’s ability to make its main weapon — deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The Iraqi government yesterday announced the Jan. 15 arrest of Abu Omar al-Kurdi (also known as Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf), a member of Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq terror operation that specializes in suicide car bombings.

The government thinks al-Kurdi, a skilled bomb maker, executed some of the most deadly assassinations and mass killings across the country.

A Pentagon adviser said that although it is difficult to judge whether the capture disrupts the Zarqawi organization, it does provide intelligence benefits.

“A very important side benefit from capturing that senior fellow is that it lights up the Christmas tree,” the adviser said. “What that means is, it starts them talking. They start communicating with each other, and it increases the chances of electronic intercepts. Plus, he knows names. He knows people. He knows contacts. He knows sources. It could be very damaging.”

Added a Special Forces soldier who has been overseas hunting terrorists, “These dirtbags have been used to the thought that they are anonymous and invulnerable.”

But “when caught, they squeal like pigs and give up their ‘brothers.’ It demoralizes those that take their place. To many of them, being caught and humiliated is worse than death/martyrdom,” he said.

With the Iraq war approaching the two-year mark, the Bush administration will ask Congress today for a new supplemental budget of $80 billion for 2005. It will cover costs in Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, bringing the combined cost for both wars to more than $300 billion.

A regular fiscal defense budget for 2006 of more than $400 billion will be presented to Congress next month.

An Iraqi government spokesman said al-Kurdi admitted to conducting 32 of the bloodiest bombings in Iraq. He had been personally ordered by Zarqawi to unleash more bloodshed to disrupt Sunday’s national elections.

But U.S. officials were cautious in predicting that his capture will reduce attacks, because Iraqi insurgents and Zarqawi employ dozens of bomb experts who can fashion an explosive out of old artillery or mortar rounds.

The government said al-Kurdi has confessed to planning the August 2003 car bombing that killed U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others. He launched another attack that same month that struck a shrine in the Shi’ite city of Najaf, killing 85 persons.

Zarqawi, in a letter obtained by U.S. authorities last year, said killing Shi’ites was an attempt to ignite a religious civil war between Shi’ites and Sunnis.

Al-Kurdi apparently was Zarqawi’s means to that end. The spokesman for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said al-Kurdi was responsible for 75 percent of car bombings since the coalition ousted Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

The al-Kurdi capture stood as the sort of pre-election coup that the military command was seeking to try to take some steam out of the insurgency, which relies greatly on roadside and vehicle IEDs to kill Americans and Iraqi allies.

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