May 12 (Reuters) - Sudanese Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi was arrested on Monday after a weekend attack on the capital by rebels from Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement, who had been linked to Turabi in the past. Here are some facts about Turabi. * Turabi is an Islamist ideologue with respect in many parts of the Muslim world. He was born in 1932 in the Sudanese town of Kassala. * He was the spiritual mentor behind the Islamist government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup, but they later fell out. * In the 1990s, when Sudan hosted al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Turabi was seen as the driving force behind Khartoum's promotion of militant Islamist groups. * Turabi supported former President Jaafar Nimeiri in his 1983 drive to Islamicise Sudan. After they fell out in March 1985 Nimeiri's 16-year rule lasted only three weeks. * Turabi has been locked up several times -- in 1985 by Nimeiri and in 2001 after a power struggle with Bashir. Released in October 2003, he was detained again in March 2004 when he was accused of plotting a coup against Bashir. * Sudan released Turabi in June 2005, in a step towards reconciliation, but Bashir's government accused him of backing the Darfur rebels -- a charge both Turabi and the group deny. * A lawyer, Turabi was educated at Edinburgh University and the Sorbonne in Paris. He is fluent in English and French.
U.S. Army General David Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, smiles next to Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani while being introduced during an Iraqi police officers summit in Baghdad May 7, 2008. ...
