(adds background) BAGHDAD, March 9 (Reuters) - A senior leader of an al Qaeda-linked group has been arrested in Iraq, state television Iraqiya said on Friday. Iraqiya did not say whether U.S. or Iraqi troops had arrested Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a body set up by al Qaeda's Iraq wing and other Sunni militant groups in October. It said he was captured in the Abu Ghraib area, which is on the western outskirts of Baghdad. U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said he had no information on the report. Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The Islamic State of Iraq has claimed a string of major attacks in Iraq, including the kidnapping last week of 18 people, mostly police officers, who were subsequently shot, with photographs of the killings released on the Internet. Earlier this week a security official said Baghdadi was among dozens of al-Qaeda militants who stormed a jail near the northern city of Mosul, freeing up to 140 prisoners, in one of the biggest prison breaks since the U.S. invasion of 2003.
