The Senescent Man

More good news from Iraq (courtesy of Power Line Blog):

Another arrest of a key al Qaeda leader has been announced in Iraq:

A top lieutenant of al-Zarqawi's terror group, Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a raid in Baghdad on Jan. 15, a government statement said Monday.

Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombings that killed hundreds of Iraqis and was linked to the August 2003 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others, the statement said.

The suspect "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad since March 2003," Allawi spokesman Thaer al-Naqib said in the statement.

Al-Jaaf was "the most lethal of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's lieutenants" and "claims responsibility for some of the most ruthless attacks on Iraqi police forces and police stations," the statement said.

Two other militants linked to al-Zarqawi's terror group also have been arrested, authorities said a man described as the chief of al-Zarqawi's propaganda operations and one of the group's weapons suppliers.

So Zarqawi's chief weapons manufacturer and director of propaganda are now in custody. And note that the Mad Bomber was arrested nine days ago. The Iraqi authorities (and, of course, the US armed forces) are getting very close, at a minimum, to Zarqawi himself. These reports add considerable credibility to reports that Zarqawi himself has been captured.