Iraqi security forces have arrested an al-Qaeda bomb-maker who was responsible for some of the worst terror attacks in the country, including the August 2003 attack on the UN office in Baghdad in which 22 people died.

Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a raid in Baghdad on January 15, a government statement said today. He was described as the "most lethal" lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terror kingpin and al-Qaeda ally in Iraq.

Two other militants from al-Zarqawi's group have also been captured, officials said, although Abu Omar - said to have been directly responsible for more than 30 car-bomb attacks in Baghdad since the April 2003 invasion of Iraq - was considered the biggest prize.

Iraqi officials said Abu Omar built the car bomb used in an attack on a shrine in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that killed more than 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, in August 2003, and also assembled the bomb used in the assassination of Izzadine Saleem, president of the now-defunct Iraqi Governing Council, last May.

"Abu Omar al-Kurdi claims responsibility for some of the most ruthless attacks on Iraqi police forces and police stations," said Thaer al-Naqib, spokesman for Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister.

News of the arrest came only a few hours after a suicide bomb struck near Dr Allawi's party office in central Baghdad, injuring 10 people. A group led by Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, an ally of Osama bin Laden and Washington’s top foe in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the bombing in an Internet statement.

"Your brothers in al Qaeda will continue their holy war until ... they are either victorious or martyred," it said.

Government officials also said that Abu Omar had received instructions from al-Zarqawi to carry out bomb attacks on election day - precisely the sort of assault the government, opposition figures, voters and international observers fear. It was not clear why his arrest was not announced earlier.

Iraq’s electoral commission has said that 14 million of Iraq’s 27 million people could go the polls on Sunday, creating what the UN has described as the biggest security and organisational challenge since Saddam Hussein’s fall.

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