AMMAN — Jordan has captured an Al Qaida commander who ordered the
abduction and killing of foreigners in Iraq.
Officials said the intelligence agencies arrested the Al Qaida operative
on May 22 in Iraq. They said the commander, an Iraqi national, was a leading
aide to Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi and operated along the
Jordanian-Iraqi border.
"We believe he directed major attacks in both Iraq and Jordan,"
officials said.
Officials said the Al Qaida commander, identified as Ziyad Khalaf Al
Karbouli, directed the abduction of Jordanians and Arabs along the
Iraqi-Jordanian frontier. They said the commander, based in the Iraqi border
town of Rutba, led a cell that robbed trucks that shuttled between Jordan
and Iraq.
On Tuesday, Jordan Television broadcast the confession of the Al Qaida
commander. Al Karbouli confessed to killing a Jordanian truck driver and
abducting two Moroccan embassy employees in 2005.
"I told him [truck driver] 'I have to kill you' and he started pleading
and said 'don't kill me,'" Karbouli said. "Then I told him 'I have to kill
you' and so I pulled my personal gun and shot him twice in the head."
Jordanian intelligence said the commander also sent operatives into
neighboring Iraq. A senior Jordanian security agency told the official Petra
news agency that the General Intelligence Department conducted a covert
operation in Iraq that led to Al Karbouli's arrest. The Al Qaida operative
was said to have been captured by Jordanian special forces.
