Michael Ware

Journalist

LDT: "The question is just what impact this arrest will make."


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Length: 1:49

LOU DOBBS: The U.S. military tonight is claiming a significant victory in the battle against al Qaeda in Iraq. Military commanders say troops captured the most senior Iraqi in al Qaeda. He is the latest in a series of top al Qaeda operatives to be captured or killed. But successes so far have done little to end the violence.

Michael Ware has our report from Baghdad -- Michael.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, the U.S. military in Baghdad today just revealed that two weeks ago, on July 4, while most Americans were enjoying Independence Day, the military had a rare success here in Iraq against al Qaeda.

The military has announced that it captured the second most senior member of that organization. His name is given as Khaled al-Mashhadani, and he is said to be the most senior Iraq in what is a foreign-led organization here fighting U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces.

Mashhadani, according to the U.S. military, was a former media chief for the al Qaeda organization and later became a key conduit between the old-school al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, hiding out in Waziristan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and its fighters here in Iraq.

However, while the military claim that this was a spectacular catch -- and it certainly is significant -- in the broader course of the war, the question is just what impact this arrest will make. The simple answer is that very little.

Numerous numbers two, threes, fours and fives of the al Qaeda organization have been killed or captured. And in the two weeks since Mashhadani's arrest, al Qaeda attacks have continued unabated -- Lou.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOBBS: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad.