Al-Qaeda's second man in Iraq captured.

Iraq's national security advisor Muwaffac al-Rubaie announced that number 2 al-Qaeda man in Iraq Hamid al-Siaidi (Abu Humam) has been arrested.

The arrest operation which involved a joint Iraqi-American force is said to has been conducted using high intelligence made available after the death of Zarqawi that left other al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq exposed according to al-Rubaie.

The information acquired indicated that Abu Humam is a dangerous man and of critical importance to al-Qaeda.
Early reports suggested that the terrorist was operating in the Salahaddin/Samarra area but that he later moved to the Baquba area not far from the place where Zarqawi was killed.

Al-Rubaie praised the performance of the assault force during the raid which he referred to as "ideal" and did not involve any collateral damage on other apartments in the same building where civilian families lived and said the wanted terrorist used those civilians as human shields during the raid "but the well-studied plan and skill of the troops prevented any loss in civilian lives" .

The arrest occurred several days ago but was not made public to protect the value of intelligence gathered during, and after the raid which Rubaie said have soon lead to further operations in which 11 (level 2) and 9 (of a lower level) al-Qaeda members were killed.

According to al-Rubaie terror operations Hamid al-Siaidi confessed he was involved in included kidnappings for ransoms they used to finance other operations, killing Iraqi policemen, attacks on many Iraqi army checkpoints, direct planning for the work of several assassination squads (he was the one responsible for preparing the hit lists) and dozens of attacks with mortars against government and civilian sites and above all he was the direct superior of criminal Haitham al-Badri who's responsible for the Samarra bombing that destroyed the Imam al-Askari shrine.

In his announcement, al-Rubaie asserted that Iraqi security forces now have the advantage and are a step ahead on al-Qaeda especially when it comes to intelligence.