US says arrested Al Qaeda leader has bin Laden ties

Meanwhile, four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in east Baghdad. The blast occurred yesterday during operations to disrupt the flow of explosives into the capital, the US military announced today.

Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was the highest-ranking Iraqi in the Al Qaeda in Iraq leadership when he was captured July 4 in Mosul, US military spokesman Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said.

Bergner told reporters that Mashhadani carried messages from bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, to the Egyptian-born head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

"There is a clear connection between Al Qaeda in Iraq and Al Qaeda senior leadership outside Iraq," Bergner said.

He said Mashhadani had told interrogators that Al Qaeda's global leadership provides "directions, they continue to provide a focus for operations" and "they continue to flow foreign fighters into Iraq, foreign terrorists."

The relationship between bin Laden and the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq has long been the subject of debate. Some private analysts believe the foreign-based leadership plays a minor role in day-to-day operations. Analysts have also questioned US military assertions that Al Qaeda in Iraq is the main threat to US forces here.

Even before Mashhadani's arrest, US military officials have insisted that links exist between the local Al Qaeda group and the bin Laden clique. From time to time, officials have released captured letters indicating a flow of policy instructions to the group's commanders in Iraq.

Although numerous armed groups operate here, Al Qaeda in Iraq's signature attacks -- high-profile truck bombings against civilian targets -- were largely responsible for unleashing the wave of sectarian slaughter last year that transformed the character of the conflict, US officials say.

"What we've learned not just from the capture of al-Mashhadani but from other Al Qaeda operatives is that there is a flow of strategic directions of prioritization, of messaging, and other guidance that comes from Al Qaeda senior leadership to the Al Qaeda in Iraq leadership," Bergner said.