OIF Summary, Oct. 23, 2009: Iraqis Nab Terrorism Suspects

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2009 -- Iraqi police and soldiers, working with U.S. advisors, arrested seven terrorism suspects in Iraq over the last two days, military officials reported.

Iraqi police captured a suspected Islamic State of Iraq terrorist group leader and three accomplices today in Bayji. Intelligence reports indicate he’s also involved with insurgent groups in Hawijah, officials said.

In eastern Mosul yesterday, Iraqi soldiers arrested three suspects while searching for Islamic State of Iraq extortion-network leaders.

The soldiers were continuing a series of searches focused on extortion-network leaders in Mosul who are believed to have close ties with al-Qaida in Iraq and are suspected of extorting profits from construction contractors and using the money to fund bombing attacks against civilians and Iraqi security forces.

Evidence at the scene linked the suspects with the wanted extortion-network leader, officials said.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)