The Iraqi interim government announced on Monday the capture of two aides of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a suicide car bombing jolted the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

"Iraqi security forces arrested on Jan. 15 Sami Mohammad Said al-Jaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, who was one of Zarqawi's aides," the interim government said in a statement.

"Abu Omar al-Kurdi was responsible for 32 attacks including the car bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003, which killed more than 20 people including the UN representative in Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello," the statement added.

The government confirmed that Kurdi was planning to attack polling stations in Baghdad on the upcoming election day. In custody, Kurdi admitted to a string of attacks in August 2003, including the UN headquarters blast, it said.

The statement said the Iraqi security forces also arrested a second man, Hassan Hamad Abdullah Mohsen al-Duleimi, who was in charge of the "propaganda" of Zarqawi's group.

The announcement of the arrests came hours after Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq with a 25-million-US-dollar price on his head, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing near Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party offices.

A huge explosion caused by a suicide car bombing jolted the Green Zone in central Baghdad on Monday, killing two and injuring at least 10 others, including eight policemen and two civilians, police said.

The blast took place at about 8:45 a.m. (0545 GMT), when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the checkpoint guarding the entrance of a street leading to Allawi's party offices in the capital and blew himself up. Allawi was not in the area at the time of the blast.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, a group led by Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombing in an Internet statement. "Your brothers in al-Qaida will continue their holy war until ...they are either victorious or martyred," it said.

Sunni-led guerrillas launched frequent suicide car bomb attacksand ambushes on Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite Muslim targets in the run-up to the elections.

On Sunday, Zarqawi declared all-out war on the elections in an Internet tape, berating the Shi'ite majority for embracing the vote and urging Sunnis to fight "infidel voters."

Zarqawi labeled the elections as a plot by the United States and its Shi'ite allies against Sunnis Muslims, who were dominant during Saddam Hussein's rule.

"We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it," a voice identified as Zarqawi's said in an audio file posted on the Internet.

In the latest grisly Zarqawi video, supporters of Zarqawi executed an Egyptian driver in broad daylight on an Iraqi street, accusing him of working for a Kuwaiti firm cooperating with US-ledforces.

The Egyptian, identified as Ibrahim Mohammed Ismail, was shown before his execution saying he worked for a Kuwaiti company which provides US forces with drinking water.

Zarqawi's group has repeatedly posted such videos showing what it calls "the implementation of God's ruling" against Iraqi "apostates" or foreign hostages.

US and Iraqi forces said they were hunting Zarqawi in the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah following a tip-off that he may have entered the city. Earlier, Allawi vowed to do everything possible to safeguard more than 5,000 polling stations against "evil forces determined to hurt Iraq."

On Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called for efforts to get the Sunnis participate in the elections,warning that it would be a "catastrophe" if Sunnis do not vote.

A call to boycott the Jan. 30 polls by the Committee of Muslim Scholars and the Islamic Party has raised fears that Sunnis will be alienated in Iraq's new political order dominated by Iraq's Shiite majority.

"I don't think that Iraq (could be) stable if the Sunnis do notparticipate in the political process," Solana told the European Parliament. "If there were no Sunni representative, it would be a catastrophe."

Solana urged efforts to get the Sunnis to participate in the drafting of the new constitution and the new electoral process.

"I don't think we will have a stable Iraq if the Sunnis are notpart of the process," he said.

Source: Xinhua