By Xinhua
Baghdad : US and Iraqi troops have detained a suspected Al Qaeda financier believed to have received some $100 million from Al-Qaeda sympathizers, the US military said Thursday.
During an operation in Baghdad’s central neighbourhood of Kindi Tuesday, the troops detained the suspect who is “believed to have received $100 million this summer from terrorist supporters who cross the Iraqi border illegally or fly into Iraq from Italy, Syria and Egypt,” the US military said in a statement.
The detainee is suspected of handing over $50,000 a month to the Al Qaeda “using his leather merchant business as a front to smuggle weapons and explosives from surrounding countries,” according to the statement.
In addition, the financier is believed to be involved in purchasing explosives that were used in destroying the golden dome of one of the most revered Shia shrines in Samarra in 2006.
He was also suspected of being involved in another attack on June 13 this year, which destroyed the two minarets of the al-Askari shrine, according to the statement.