US forces 'holding Zarqawi aide'

Al-Zarqawi has a large bounty on his head

US troops in Iraq are holding a top aide to the most wanted rebel there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, US officials say.

The officials from the US Defence Department declined to identify the man, who they said held joint US and Jordanian citizenship.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Matthew Waxman said the man was held in a raid late in 2004, explosives and arms had been found in his Iraqi house.

Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for many bombings and beheadings in Iraq.

Mr Waxman added that Zarqawi's captured aide was an emissary to insurgent groups in several cities in Iraq.

The US has put a $25m (£13m) bounty on Zarqawi, who has declared his group's allegiance to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama Bin Laden.

Zarqawi has steadily risen to prominence as the symbol of the Iraq insurgency in the same way Osama Bin Laden has been the symbol of the global Islamist insurgency, the BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera says.

Zarqawi is alleged to be the leader of the Tawhid and Jihad group, that has anything between 20 and 500 members.