Iraq arrests three suspected Qaeda leaders

Authorities have arrested three suspected senior leaders of al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, including its self-styled minister of defense, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Also among the group detained were two brothers suspected of masterminding major attacks in the central Iraqi province of Diyala, defense ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.

"Iraqi soldiers arrested Saleem Khalid al-Zawbayi, the minister of defense for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)," Askari said.

"He was arrested on Thursday evening south of Baghdad," he added.

Askari also said that two brothers -- Jaabar and Qadoori Radhi Khamis al-Zaidi -- believed to have been responsible for operations in Diyala, were arrested in the northern city of Tikrit, where they were based.

The two were ISI "emirs", according to Askari.

Zawbayi is suspected of organizing a July 18 suicide bombing in the town of Radwaniyah, west of Baghdad, targeting anti-Qaeda militiamen being paid their wages. Forty-five people were killed and 46 wounded.

Al-Qaeda also took responsibility for a the second attack in the same day where a suicide bomber killed four and wounded six at a meeting of local Sunni militia leaders in western Iraq, near the Syrian border.

In a statement posted on a website often used by Islamists, al-Qaeda said it had conducted the attacks as part of action against "leaders of apostasy", a term used for Sunni fighters who once allied with al-Qaeda but turned on the militant group in 2006/07, helping U.S. forces turn the tide in the war.

"A lion of the Islamic State managed to intrude among the cattle after they were blinded by pickings of money thrown by the ... government and they fell into the torture of God," the statement said.

Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have sought to exploit the political vacuum created by a failure of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions to agree on a coalition government following an inconclusive March 7 parliamentary election, and have carried out a series of attacks since the vote.

Sahwa leaders have been among the primary targets. Some of the attacks have been attributed to acts of revenge by former fellow insurgents, while others have been blamed on long-running blood feuds between families.

The sectarian conflict between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shiites that began after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has largely subsided but a Sunni Islamist insurgency persists.

The U.S. military has increasingly taken a backseat role since pulling out of Iraqi urban centers in June last year and U.S. troops will end combat operations formally on Aug. 31, before a full withdrawal next year.

lion of the Islamic State managed to intrude among the cattle after they were blinded by pickings of money thrown by the ... government and they fell into the torture of God

Qaeda statement