Nah - there's no connection between Iraq and Al-Aaeda... nope.... -.. oops.. I'll end my liberalism impression here.. 
KERBALA, Iraq, July 27 (Reuters) - Iraqi commandos have captured an Egyptian said to be an associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, police sources said on Wednesday.
Police named the suspect as Hamdi Tantawi and said he was detained in a raid on a farmhouse near the town of Yusufiya, south of Baghdad. They said Tantawi was suspected of financing insurgent operations in the area.
They said Tantawi was believed to be a lieutenant to Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor regarded as second-in-command to Osama bin Laden in the al Qaeda network. Computers, money and weapons were also seized in the raid, the police said.
Wednesday's operation took place in an area called al-Shakhat, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, part of a region referred to as the "triangle of death" by U.S. troops because of the frequency of insurgent attacks.
Police said initial interrogations had revealed that Tantawi was responsible for several attacks on Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians in the area.
The U.S. military and the Iraqi government were not immediately available to comment on the arrest.
In recent months, Iraqi commandos and U.S. forces have detained many insurgents said to be senior associates of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of a group called al Qaeda in Iraq, an offshoot allied to bin Laden.
The seizure of Tantawi was believed to be one of the first captures of a member of the main al Qaeda network in Iraq.
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=BAK748975
KERBALA, Iraq, July 27 (Reuters) - Iraqi commandos have captured an Egyptian said to be an associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, police sources said on Wednesday.
Police named the suspect as Hamdi Tantawi and said he was detained in a raid on a farmhouse near the town of Yusufiya, south of Baghdad. They said Tantawi was suspected of financing insurgent operations in the area.
They said Tantawi was believed to be a lieutenant to Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor regarded as second-in-command to Osama bin Laden in the al Qaeda network. Computers, money and weapons were also seized in the raid, the police said.
Wednesday's operation took place in an area called al-Shakhat, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, part of a region referred to as the "triangle of death" by U.S. troops because of the frequency of insurgent attacks.
Police said initial interrogations had revealed that Tantawi was responsible for several attacks on Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians in the area.
The U.S. military and the Iraqi government were not immediately available to comment on the arrest.
In recent months, Iraqi commandos and U.S. forces have detained many insurgents said to be senior associates of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of a group called al Qaeda in Iraq, an offshoot allied to bin Laden.
The seizure of Tantawi was believed to be one of the first captures of a member of the main al Qaeda network in Iraq.
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=BAK748975
