A senior leader of an al Qaeda-linked group has been arrested in Iraq, state television Iraqiya said this evening.
Iraqiya did not say whether US or Iraqi troops had arrested Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a body set up by al-Qaeda's Iraq wing and other Sunni militant groups in October.
US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said he had no information on the report. Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last month the group vowed to widen its attacks on US troops across Iraq. In a web recording it said its campaign would stop only "when Bush signs a surrender accord".
"We today announce a strategy ... which is wider and wiser with God's power. It does not involve Baghdad alone but all parts of the Islamic state," said the speaker, identified as al-Baghdadi.