BAGHDAD, Jan 24: Iraq announced the capture of a senior aide to leading militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Monday, hours after Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb near the offices of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

The seizure of Abu Omar al-Kurdi, accused of masterminding some of the worst car bombings in Iraq, appeared to be a major breakthrough for the authorities ahead of next Sunday's historic election, which Zarqawi and his followers have vowed to disrupt.

Abu Omar, also known as Sami Mohammed al-Jafi, was seized in a raid in Baghdad on Jan 15, the government said in a statement released six days before the polls.

He is blamed for over 30 bombings including the attack on the UN headquarters in August 2003 which killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 20 others, and a blast in Najaf the same month which killed 80, including a top Shia scholar Ayatollah Baqar al Hakim.

"Kurdi has confessed to some 75 per cent of the car bombs that were used for attacks in Baghdad since March 2003 and to making the explosives used in the attack on the Jordanian embassy in Aug. 2003," said government spokesman Thair al-Naqib.

The government said Abu Omar had received instructions from Zarqawi to carry out a series of bomb attacks on election day - precisely the sort of assault the government, opposition figures, voters and international observers fear.

Iraq's electoral commission has said 14 million of Iraq's 27 million people could go the polls on Sunday, creating what the UN has described as the biggest security and organizational challenge since Saddam Hussein's fall.

The announcement of Abu Omar's arrest and that of another senior militant, Nayef Abbas al-Zubaydi, came hours after a suicide car bomb struck near Allawi's party office in central Baghdad, injuring 10 people. -Reuters