Terror Group Denies Leader’s Capture

09/24/2006

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Internet statement posted Sunday said that the leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group had not been captured, contradicting an Iraqi government report.

Iraq’s armed forces announced the arrest Friday of Muntasir Hamoud Ileiwi al-Jubouri, a senior leader of the Ansar al-Sunnah group, and two of his aides near Muqdadiyah, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad.

“At the time we deny this report,” said the statement posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants and attributed to Ansar al-Sunnah. It charged that the announcement of the arrests “indicates clearly the weakness and bankruptcy of this government.”

The statement whose authenticity could not be verified, said “our jihad continues as well as our operations.”

Ansar al-Sunnah’s statement contained no information demonstrating that al-Jubouri or his aides remain at large.

The Sunni militant group has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide attacks as well as the August 2004 execution of 12 Nepalese hostages, and a December 2004 bombing that killed 22 people at a U.S. military mess hall in the northern city of Mosul.