Al Qaida 'butcher' known for beheadings of innocents, captured in Diyala
Friday, November 14, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
BAGHDAD — A leading Al Qaida operative has been captured in Iraq.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry reported the arrest of Riyad Wahab Hassan Falih, deemed one of the most brutal agents of Al Qaida. Officials described Falih as a leading Al Qaida executioner who in 2008 was operating in the Diyala province.
"Iraqi forces received intelligence on a very dangerous terrorist known as the number-one butcher who was responsible for a beheading squad that slaughtered innocent people," Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al Askari said. In a Nov. 12 briefing, Al Askari, a major general, said Falih was responsible for numerous executions in Diyala. He said Falih also trained other Al Qaida operatives in beheading Iraqis.
The capture of Falih came amid an intensification of operations against Al Qaida by Iraqi and U.S. forces. On Nov. 12, nine Al Qaida cell commanders were arrested in an underground torture chamber in Diyala. In another operation in the province, five suspected Al Qaida operatives were killed.
Diyala has been a leading Al Qaida stronghold in Iraq. Officials said the Al Qaida network sent scores of suicide bombers from Diyala for attacks in Baghdad. On Nov. 12, at least 23 people were killed in a series of suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital.
Over the last six months, Iraqi forces, bolstered by the Sunni-dominated Sahwa auxiliary police, have driven Al Qaida squads out of villages in Diyala. In some villages, the Baghdad government has restored order and established municipal councils to provide services.
"Sahwa walks hand and hand with the Americans and that's extremely bad for us," a Sunni insurgent in Faluja told the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. "There is no doubt we have been weakened. The surge was never the problem. The Americans are not that dangerous. They have the technology, but they don't know the topography. But we've been betrayed by our own brethren."
Most of the anti-Al Qaida operations have been conducted by Iraqi military and security forces. Officials said U.S. military units have been quietly withdrawing from Iraqi cities, particularly in the Anbar province, and redeployed in isolated bases.
"There's been a big effort to move all the Marine forces out of the cities," Brig. Gen. Martin Post, deputy commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq, said. "And so as you go throughout, from Faluja all the way up the Euphrates River Valley, up to Al Qaim — where we used to have Marines actually living in the cities — we've pulled them all out."