Qaeda cell busted in western Iraq

Iraqi police yesterday dismantled an al-Qaeda cell of would-be suicide bombers in western Iraq and seized 50 explosive belts primed for use, a local mayor said.
Sheikh Hikmat Jubair al-Kaud, mayor of the town of Hit, said the arrests were carried out during a raid by special units of the police.
"These people belonged to an al-Qaeda cell which was preparing to carry out suicide attacks," he told AFP. Police seized 50 vests stuffed with explosives and uncovered a workshop used to equip car bombs.
Hit lies in Al-Anbar province, which was a bastion of the Sunni Arab insurgency which erupted shortly after the 2003 US-led invasion and a battleground in which the US military said it expelled the rebels in late 2004.
The American military has over the past 18 months been recruiting local tribal chiefs in both western and northern Iraq to join the fight against al-Qaeda.
According to the mayor, the dismantled cell carried out a June 1 attack on a police checkpoint in Hit that killed nine people, including an officer.
"Those arrested are Iraqis but the group has also recruited foreign elements. The first confessions on the June 1 attack were made by a Palestinian," said Kaud.
The US army said it made 49 arrests after that attack.
CIA chief Michael Hayden said in late May that al-Qaeda was essentially defeated in Iraq.
Meanwhile, seven people were killed in two attacks in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, including a mortar strike on the highly-fortified Green Zone, Iraqi officials said.