Baghdad Says a Top Bomb Maker Is in Custody

An expert bomb maker linked to some of Iraq’s most sensational and deadly attacks -- including strikes on the United Nations, the Jordanian Embassy and an Italian base -- has been captured, Iraqi authorities said Monday.

Also on Monday, six American soldiers died. Five were killed and two were injured in what military officials said was a vehicle accident near Khan Bani Saad. The 1st Infantry Division members were pronounced dead at a military treatment facility to which they had been evacuated.

Later, the military said a Task Force Baghdad soldier died from wounds suffered when his patrol hit a roadside bomb in the western part of the capital.

The suspected bomber in custody, identified as Sami Mohammed Ali Said Jaaf -- also known as Abu Umar Kurdi -- was described in a government statement as “the most lethal” lieutenant of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose group has claimed credit for numerous bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. Zarqawi is the most wanted man in Iraq.

Jaaf has admitted under interrogation to involvement in at least 32 car and truck bombings that together have killed hundreds, said Thair Nakib, a spokesman for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Jaaf has also told interrogators that he was involved in the torture and execution of an Iraqi human rights advocate, the spokesman said.

Suicide car bombs have emerged as one of the most deadly weapons of the insurgency. Authorities believe that most who mount such attacks are from outside Iraq. Jaaf’s nationality was not revealed, but his surname indicates that he is probably an Iraqi Kurd.

Jaaf was arrested Jan. 15 in a Baghdad raid and has confessed to building about 75% of the car bombs employed in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, the prime minister’s spokesman said. No details were released about how and where in Baghdad he had been captured, nor why the arrest had not been announced until more than a week later.

Targets linked to Jaaf’s bombs included police and government buildings, U.S. convoys, Iraqi police and military checkpoints, the Jordanian Embassy and an Italian base in the southern city of Nasiriya. The latter bombing, in November 2003, killed about 30 people. Jaaf was also associated with the August 2003 truck bombing of the United Nations compound that killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others, the government said.

The government added that Jaaf’s devices also resulted in the assassinations of several prominent Iraqis, including Ezzedine Salim, a leading Shiite Muslim politician killed in May 2004. Jaaf was also linked to the slaying of Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim, a leading Shiite cleric and political figure, who died in August 2003 in a truck bombing outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. Scores of worshipers leaving Friday prayers were also killed in the attack.

Two U.S. officials in Baghdad who asked to remain anonymous confirmed the arrest of Jaaf. One said Jaaf’s name had been showing up on intelligence reports for the last year or so.

“The capture is a big deal,” he said.

In Washington, officials at various U.S. agencies had no comment, but one counter-terrorism consultant who follows the Zarqawi organization closely said he had never heard of the suspect and that the Iraqi government’s claims about his importance raised questions.

Evan Kohlmann of GlobalTerrorAlert said one of Zarqawi’s top deputies last year had publicly identified another militant in Iraq as being responsible for many of the same attacks now being blamed on Jaaf.

The Iraqi government announcement occurred six days before watershed national elections in which Allawi -- whose office disclosed the arrest -- heads a prominent slate of candidates. Allawi, who is close to U.S. officials, has been criticized by political opponents for using his office to advance his electoral prospects.

In recent weeks, the government said, Jaaf had received orders from Zarqawi to target Iraqi election sites and polling stations before and during Sunday’s vote. U.S. and Iraqi officials are gearing up for an onslaught of attacks designed to disrupt the nationwide event.

It remains unclear how much of a dent Jaaf’s arrest puts in the Zarqawi network. Jaaf is the latest in a series of alleged Zarqawi lieutenants and bomb makers to be killed or seized, but the militant group has continued undeterred. Zarqawi himself has eluded capture despite numerous U.S. raids and bombing runs designed to kill or arrest him. Washington has put a $25-million price on his head, the same as for Osama bin Laden.

In an October message on the Internet, Zarqawi, once thought to be a rival of Bin Laden, announced that his organization had joined forces with Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.

Zarqawi is said to move from place to place and be a master of disguise. Frustrated U.S. authorities have reported near misses in their efforts to capture him.

Audio messages said to be from the radical Islamist occasionally appear on militant websites. Several have been posted in recent days, including one in which he declared a “fierce war” on democracy. He also purportedly called the election a U.S. ploy to bring Shiite Muslims to power in Iraq.

Fear of Shiite domination -- and allegations of a Shiite-U.S. alliance -- is a recurrent theme emanating from Zarqawi and other Sunni militants. Iraq’s long-suppressed Shiite majority is expected to do well in this weekend’s election, a prospect that is sending shock waves through the Arab world, which is mostly Sunni.

Disaffected Sunnis are believed to be providing much of the manpower for the insurgency that has killed thousands in Iraq since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein, himself a Sunni. There are widespread fears the violence in Iraq could evolve into a sectarian civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.

Zarqawi’s invisibility -- in contrast with the seeming ubiquity of his operations -- has led some Iraqis to doubt his very existence. Local media accounts occasionally quote Iraqis describing Zarqawi as a U.S. invention to be conveniently blamed for one atrocity after another. Also arrested, the government said Monday, were two other Zarqawi aides.

Times staff writer Josh Meyer in Washington contributed to this report.