BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. military has announced the arrest of an Al Qaeda figure who allegedly planned the 2006 kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll.
A statement Sunday says Salim Abdullah Ashur al-Shujayri was captured during an Aug. 11 operation. It adds he is also known as Abu Othman.
The military says al-Shujayri is believed to be "the planner behind the kidnapping" of Carroll. She was a Christian Science Monitor reporter seized Jan. 7, 2006 and freed three months later.
The statement also says al-Shujayri's associates were involved in the high-profile kidnappings of Christian peace activists and British aid worker Margaret Hassan.
Hassan was abducted in Baghdad in October 2004 and later killed, although her body was never found.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox