Iraq prime minister ties Saddam regime to captured Al Qaida commander

from WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said Al Qaida worked closely with former operatives in Saddam Hussein regime.

Officials said leading members of the Al Qaida network have coordinated operations with Saddam aides since 2003. They said Al Qaida and Saddam forces attacked Shi'ites in an effort to spark a civil war in Iraq.

"They agreed that Al Qaida would carry out the suicide attacks, while the Baathists [Saddam's ruling party] would do the remote-control bombs," Al Maliki said.

The Al Qaida-Saddam link, asserted by then-U.S. President George Bush in 2002, came in wake of the reported capture of a leading Al Qaida commander in Iraq.

The government has determined that an Iraqi Sunni arrested in April 2009 was Abu Omar Al Baghdadi, identified as the head of the the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group that contained Al Qaida.