BAGHDAD, April 6: The US military announced on Thursday it had caught a top aide to Al Qaeda’s Iraq front man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi wanted over the kidnapping of Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena last year.

The military said a massive manhunt by Iraqi and US forces led to the arrest of Mohammed Hila Hammad Ubaydi, also known as Abu Ayman.

He was caught on March 7 but his arrest was not immediately announced pending a DNA test, which “confirmed this is Abu Ayman,” the military said.

Ayman, a former aide to the intelligence chief during Saddam Hussein’s regime, was captured in southern Baghdad’s Al-Mahmudiyah neighbourhood, the military said.

He was also the leader of the ‘Secret Islamic Army’, a militant outfit operating in the northern Babil province, it said, adding “he had strong ties to terror leader Zarqawi”.

The military said he is also the prime suspect in the kidnapping of Sgrena and is responsible for a series of assassination attempts on Iraqi government and Iraqi security force officials.

The Sgrena kidnapping in February 2005 drew worldwide attention when US soldiers shot dead an Italian agent shepherding her to safety after she was freed.

The US military charged that Ayman has killed a number of hostages in Iraq and set off some of the deadliest roadside bombs against US-led and Iraqi forces since the fall of Saddam in April 2003.

“Ayman’s capture will not only disrupt some of these attacks, but he will also provide valuable information leading to the capture of other terrorists he has worked with in the past,” the military said.

It said information on Ayman was provided by his aide Abu Qatada, a Syrian national, who was arrested in December.

—AFP