DUBAI, 5 September 2006 — The Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda denied yesterday that its second-highest official, Hamed Jumaa Al-Saedi, had been arrested in Iraq, in a statement posted on an Internet site.
“The apostate government is trying to disguise its defeats by announcing the arrest of the ‘number two in Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia’,” the statement said, a day after Iraqi national security advisor Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie hailed Saedi’s capture.
“This announcement is also designed to hide the latest defeats of the Crusaders and their valets in Al-Anbar (province of western Iraq) and Baghdad,” said the group calling itself the Mujahedeen Consultative Council.
“We do not know how many deputy leaders they arrested and how many lies they have invented,” added the group composed of eight armed Sunni factions that operate under the Al-Qaeda umbrella.
“We reassure our brothers that our leaders...are on the front lines, fighting and inciting the faithful” to combat, the statement said.
Its authenticity could not immediately be established.
