Qaeda agent linked to Egypt envoy murder held -U.S.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. forces said on Thursday they had
captured an al Qaeda agent they believed was linked to the
kidnapping and murder of Egypt’s envoy to Iraq.

They said they had captured Khamis Farhan Khalaf Abd al
Fahdawi, also known as Abu Seba, on July 9 in Ramadi, in the
Euphrates River valley west of Baghdad.

“Seba served as a senior lieutenant of Al Qaeda in Iraq,
and is suspected in attacks against diplomats of Bahrain,
Pakistan and the recent murder of the Egyptian envoy” Ihab el
Sherif, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The military announced earlier this week that it had also
captured a man called Abu Abdul Aziz, whom it identified as a
senior lieutenant of the leader of Iraq’s Qaeda wing, Abu Musab
al Zarqawi.

Sherif, who had been expected to become the first Arab
diplomat in Baghdad with the full rank of ambassador since the
ousting of Saddam Hussein, was kidnapped off the streets on
July 2 and later killed. Two days after he disappeared, gunmen
fired on the top envoys of Pakistan and Bahrain.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders said the attacks on diplomats were
planned by al Qaeda to intimidate other Muslim countries
seeking to improve their ties with the U.S.-backed authorities
in Baghdad.