MOSUL, Iraq, Dec 27 (AFP) - The Iraqi government announced Wednesday the capture of a militant linked to most wanted Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the northern city of Mosul.
"A key leader of a Mosul-based terrorist group affiliated with the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist network was captured by multinational forces on December 23," the government said in a statement.
The statement identified the fighter as 33-year-old Abu Marwan, a senior commander with Mosul-based Abu Talha groups, which the government said was linked to Zarqawi, a Jordanian Islamist with a 25-million dollar price on his head.
The arrest occurred the day after a suicide bomber penetrated a US military base in Mosul and killed 22 people, 18 of them Americans, in the deadliest single attack on US forces in Iraq.
A purported audio message broadcast Monday on Arab television from Al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden named Zarqawi his "emir" in Iraq.
On Wednesday, masked gunmen ran through the deserted streets of Mosul, firing fired off guns and rocket-propelled grenades, an AFP correspondent said.
The city of 1.5 million people, where US forces are expected to increase their numbers ahead of the January 30 elections, has been riven by violence for nearly two months.
Mosul, one of Iraq's largest cities, has become a battlefield between US forces and insurgents since US forces launched an assault on the former rebel stronghold Fallujah on November 8.
It has been identified as one of Zarqawi's main bases in Iraq, if not his best stronghold following the Fallujah assault.
12/29/2004 16:41 GMT - AFP