KIRKUK, Iraq - The Iraqi army announced it had prevented a suicide bombing on a base near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk Sunday and arrested a Saudi national who had been preparing to carry it out.
"Our forces succeeded in thwarting a suicide attack against our K1 base, one of the main Iraqi army bases, eight kilometres (five miles) north of Kirkuk," regional commander General Anwar Hamad Amin told AFP.
"The soldiers intercepted the car at 11:30 am (0830 GMT) at a traffic control point as it headed to the base."
The driver swiftly confessed that he was a Saudi national loyal to Iraq's Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Amin added.
The Iraqi government said Thursday that it had killed or captured all of Zarqawi's top lieutenants except one, whom it identified as Abu Talha, based in the main northern city of Mosul.
The Al-Qaeda operative is blamed for a string of deadly suicide bombings and hostage executions, and is Iraq's most wanted man with a 25 million dollar US bounty on his head.
03/13/2005 11:35 GMT