OIF Summary, Oct. 1, 2009: Iraqis Nab Terrorist Financier, Other Suspects

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2009 -- Iraqi forces, with U.S. advisors, in recent days have arrested an alleged terrorist financier and recruiter, as well as five suspects in a roadside bomb network, military officials reported.

In Balad, the Iraqi army's emergency response brigade arrested alleged Khitab Hezbollah financier and recruiter Khalid Masur Ismail in Baghdad's Sadr City district.

Ismail, who also is known as Abu Mustafa, was arrested on a court-issued warrant when he identified himself upon contact and admitted to working as a manager for a security firm alleged to be a front for Khitab Hezbollah.

During the operation, Iraqi soldiers entered the suspect's workplace, arrested him, and searched the area without incident.

The arrest of Ismail and the information he provides will significantly affect the Khitab Hezbollah terrorist organization's finance and recruiting operations, military officials said.

In another operation, Iraqi police arrested five suspects yesterday while searching for members of bombing networks in Kirkuk and Muqdadiyah.

Iraq's 3rd Emergency Services Unit, with U.S. advisors, searched for and arrested a suspect on a criminal warrant in southern Kirkuk. The man, Diya Abdul Ghani Musa, is a suspected member of a terrorist network that plans and executes attacks against Iraqi security forces and residents in Kirkuk.

While searching a building for Diya, the security team discovered wireless triggering mechanisms used for explosives. A second man in the building was questioned by police and identified as an al-Qaida associate. Both men were arrested without incident.

In other operations:

• Iraqi police, with U.S. advisors, searched several buildings in Muqdadiyah for an al-Qaida in Iraq member who is charged in a criminal warrant with orchestrating IED attacks throughout the Baghdad region. During the search, Iraqi police questioned and arrested three people suspected to be al-Qaida in Iraq affiliates operating in Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad.

• Iraqi forces today discovered a hidden cache of weapons and explosive material used by al-Qaida in Iraq operatives, and arrested a man believed connected to terrorist activity in Mosul.

• Iraqi national police, with U.S. advisors, confiscated numerous weapons and explosive material used by Islamic State of Iraq members to build vehicle bombs and suicide vests for attacks against Iraqi forces and civilians in Mosul. The security team cleared several buildings, uncovering military rockets and industrial-grade chemicals used to manufacture bombs. The Islamic State of Iraq organization continues to use explosives to conduct deadly attacks targeting police and people in neighborhoods in Mosul, officials said.

• Iraqi soldiers, with U.S. advisors, entered several buildings in Mosul to arrest a man on a warrant charging him with obtaining and distributing explosive material used to build bombs in Ninevah province. Another person was questioned and identified as an al-Qaida in Iraq criminal accomplice.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)