{"id":275,"date":"2004-10-23T20:34:14","date_gmt":"2004-10-24T01:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=275"},"modified":"2006-02-27T23:12:32","modified_gmt":"2006-02-28T05:12:32","slug":"terrorist-associate-seized-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=275","title":{"rendered":"Terrorist Associate Seized in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

The noose is slowly tightening around the neck of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as the U.S. keeps up the pressure around Fallujah and nabs an al-Zarqawi associate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A newly promoted associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was arrested in Iraq on Saturday, the U.S. military reported, while elsewhere, two suicide car bombings and a drive-by shooting killed at least 14 people in separate incidents.<\/p>\n

The al-Zarqawi associate was seized early Saturday along with five other terrorists in southern Falluja, the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, the military said.<\/p>\n

Their identities were not disclosed.<\/p>\n

Initially, the al-Zarqawi associate was thought to be a minor member of the terrorist’s circle, however “due to a surge in the number of al-Zarqawi associates who have been captured or killed by [multinational forces] strikes and other operations, the member had moved up to take a critical position as an al-Zarqawi senior leader,” the U.S. military said.<\/p>\n

Falluja has been the site of intensified U.S. attacks in recent weeks, with American forces stepping up their efforts against al-Zarqawi and his Unification and Jihad group, which has staged attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi police and civilians.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department is offering $25 million for the capture or death of al-Zarqawi, blamed for the recent series of beheadings and who last week swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n

In another development, al-Zarqawi’s followers have dispersed to Falluja’s outlying areas, where they are attempting to hide among the civilian population, according to a U.S. military news release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m wagering that al-Zarqawi ain’t sleeping too well at nights. His only hope may be a group of Sunni clerics who are threatening a boycott<\/a> of the January elections if the coalition attacks Fallujah. It is my opinion that the pacification of Fallujah and the nullification of the terrorist al-Zarqawi is more pressing for the success of the elections than the threat of a partial Sunni boycott. After all, the Sunni clerics run the risk of taking a hit on their own credibility if their boycott is not a major impairment to Iraqi voting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The noose is slowly tightening around the neck of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as the U.S. keeps up the pressure around Fallujah and nabs an al-Zarqawi associate. A newly promoted associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was arrested in Iraq on Saturday, the U.S. military reported, while elsewhere, two suicide car bombings and a drive-by shooting killed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}