Al-Qaeda leader arrested north of Khalis

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi forces on Wednesday arrested a senior al-Qaeda leader ‘emir’ during a joint operation in north of Khalis city, a police source said. “Joint police and army forces waged at dawn a military campaign in al-Salam district, north of Khalis, targeting one of al-Qaeda’s strongholds in al-Jayayla village, where they arrested Ahmed Hassan al-Azawi, a l-Qaeda emir,” the source told IraqiNews.com. He did not give further details. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad . It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). A large portion of the province is drained by the Diala River , a major tributary of the Tigris . Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diala’s main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East . In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. SH (S) 1