The US military said it captured a top member of Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network, along with five other rebels, during a pre-dawn raid in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
The raid took place at 1:30 am (2230 Irish time) in the south of Fallujah, which has become the target of near nightly US air strikes in the hunt for Iraq's most wanted man and his followers.
"Due to a surge in the number of Zarqawi associates who have been captured or killed by multinational strikes and other operations, the member had moved up to take a critical position as a Zarqawi senior leader," the military said in a statement.
Citing "intelligence" sources, it claimed that Zarqawi followers had started to move out of central Fallujah to the outlying areas due to the relentless barrage of air strikes in recent weeks.
"Multinational forces urge the people of Fallujah to continue to support coalition efforts by providing information on the locations of Zarqawi associates," it said in a separate statement.
US and Iraqi officials believe that the Sunni Muslim bastion west of Baghdad has become the central hub for the Jordanian-born militant and his men, who have claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks to scar the country since last-year's US-led invasion.
They include most recently the beheading of 11 memebers of Iraq's security forces and a suicide car bombing that left more than 30 children dead.
Determined to regain control of the city, which has become a no-go zone for the US army, more than 1,000 joint US and Iraqi forces have encircled the area since last Friday. Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last week ordered Fallujah residents to hand over Zarqawi or face invasion.
Humanitarian agencies have raised concerns for the welfare of residents in Fallujah, which is being hit by US air raids almost every night.
AFP