Islam Times - Iraqi officials announce arrest of top al-Qaeda leader

Islam Times - A spokesman for a joint command center in northern Iraq said security forces arrested seven Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda.

One of them was the self-styled finance minister of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an Al-Qaeda front group, who had reportedly tried to enter Iraq from neighboring Syria with fake documents.

Unrest has surged in Iraq this year to levels not seen since 2008, when the country was emerging from a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Attacks have killed more than 3,600 people since the beginning of 2013, according to figures compiled by AFP.