Terrorist Leaders Captured in Iraq

May 31, 2006 - Iraqi and coalition forces captured eight
terrorist leaders in recent operations in Baghdad neighborhoods. Also,
the Iraqi-led Combined Review and Release Board released more than 200
detainees.

Yesterday, Iraqi forces raided two targets in the Karada area of
Baghdad and detained seven individuals responsible for homemade bomb attacks
against Iraqi security forces.

The first target was a dormitory on Baghdad Technical University's
campus where two student cells, operating out of dormitory rooms, built
bombs and later initiated attacks against Iraqi army and police forces.
Four students were detained during this operation.

At the second target, an apartment building near the campus, Iraqi
forces detained three cell leaders responsible for emplacing bombs made by
their student cells. All three cell leaders are believed to be
Palestinians, and they were financed by a local business.

This cell is responsible for at least two attacks against Iraqi
security and police forces in the Karada area. The first attack, in December
2005, resulted in no casualties. The second attack, in January of this
year, killed several Iraqi police officers riding in a vehicle.

No Iraqi forces were killed or wounded during this operation.

On May 29, Iraqi and coalition forces captured a key insurgent leader
in Iraq, in the Ameriya neighborhood of Baghdad's Mansour district.

Sheikh Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi, also known as Ahmed
al-Dabash, was a major financier and facilitator of terrorism in Iraq, most
notably the bomb attack in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on March 2,
2004. In that attack, several pre-set explosives were detonated near one
of the most important Shiite shrines in Iraq - the Golden Dome Mosque.

More than 140 Iraqis were murdered and hundreds were wounded in the
attack that occurred during the Shiite observance of Ashoura, a time when
thousands of pilgrims gathered in Karbala. It is believed that Dabash
also was responsible for the attack on the Shiite al-Tawhid Mosque in
Baghdad and for facilitating other terror attacks around Baghdad.

Coalition forces consider Dabash's capture significant for the critical
information they believe he will provide on al Qaeda and Jordanian
terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network. They said he is known to have
close ties to these organizations.

The Iraqi Central Investigating Court in Baghdad issued an arrest
warrant for Dabash on Jan. 9, 2005, citing his violation of Iraqi Penal Code
194 - committing terrorist acts.

Iraqi and coalition intelligence officials and security forces tracked
Dabash in a determined manhunt, and over the last two years have
arrested several of his enablers and underlings who followed Dabash's command
to commit terrorist crimes, officials said.