Iraq's Interior Ministry forces captured a top aide to al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi during a raid in western Iraq, a security official said Monday. The official identified this key al-Qaeda figure as Abu al-Farouq.
According to the AP, the officer conveyed Abu al-Farouq and five other al-Qaeda members were captured following a tip from residents near al-Bakr, about 30 miles west of Ramadi.
Also Monday, the Defense Ministry reported Iraqi security forces had killed 35 "insurgents" and detined 487 in nationwide raids since Wednesday, when bombers destroyed a famous Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, two attacks killed eight people on Monday. In one attack a mortar killed four people in a Shiite district of Sunni west Baghdad. After evening prayers, two roadside bombs killed four people near a Sunni mosque in the east of the city.
