DUBAI, Nov 15 (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Monday that an Islamist rebel group in Fallujah linked to most wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been crushed and its leaders arrested during the US-led offensive on the restive city.
"We have our hands on the group known as Jaish Mohamed (Mohamed's Army), its chief Muayyed Ahmed Yassin, alias Abu Ahmed. We have also arrested his lieutenants and the group's command," Allawi told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.
"They were plotting to destroy Fallujah and cause maximum damage to its residents by blowing up major sites," he added.
Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim bastion west of Baghdad, has been in the grip of a massive US-led onslaught since last Monday aimed at wiping out insurgents who have been waging deadly attacks across the country for months.
Allawi said Mohamed's Army was linked to the network of the Al-Qaeda-linked Zarqawi, public enemy number one in Iraq who carries a 25 million dollar bounty on his head.
The group has "killed by beheading several Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in Iraq," Allawi said, adding that its members were working in league with Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda and supporters of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and had links abroad.
Mohamed's Army is a Salafist (hardline Sunni Muslim) cell made up of security agents from the former regime who are based in the so-called Sunni triangle north and west of Baghdad, according to experts on such Islamist groups.
It was one of the groups to have claimed responsibility for the massive suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August last year that killed 22 people including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The group has also claimed other attacks, mainly against Iraqis working with US-led forces in Iraq.
Allawi added that a second rebel group which he did not identify had been dismantled and that its members were being questioned by the Iraqi security services.
11/15/2004 18:33 GMT - AFP