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

Posted on: Thursday, 14 July 2005, 08:57 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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