(CBS/AP) Authorities on Sunday announced the capture of al Qaeda in Iraq's No. 2 leader, accusing him of "brutal and merciless" terror operations, including the bombing of a Shiite shrine that touched off the sectarian bloodletting pushing Iraq toward civil war.

Iraq's national security adviser said Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was arrested a few days ago as he hid in a residential building southwest of Baqouba.

The arrest has left al Qaeda in Iraq suffering a "serious leadership crisis," Mouwafak al-Rubaie said. "Our troops have dealt fatal and painful blows to this organization."

He accused the terror suspect of supervising the creation of death squads and ordering assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and attacks on Iraqi police and army checkpoints. "The operations were brutal and merciless," al-Rubaie said.

Not much is known about al-Saeedi, but al-Rubaie said he was the second most important al Qaeda in Iraq leader after Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Al-Masri is believed to have taken over the group after a U.S. air strike killed leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi north of Baghdad on June 7.

Al-Rubaie said al-Saeedi was "directly responsible" for Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, an Iraqi whom authorities have accused of leading the Feb. 22 bombing against the Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The attack inflamed tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and triggered reprisal attacks that have killed hundreds of Iraqis.

Al-Saeedi's capture "will affect al Qaeda in Iraq and its operations against our people, especially those aimed at inciting sectarian strife," al-Rubaie said.

But al-Saeedi's capture may not make as much of a difference as officials hope, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann. After the death of top al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June, bloodshed only got worse. A Pentagon report issued Friday said violence in Iraq in the three months after Zarqawi's death was the highest level in two years.

Illegal militias have become more entrenched — especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services.

In other developments:

Two U.S. soldiers were killed in eastern Baghdad Sunday morning when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, the U.S. military command said. The names of the soldiers and of their units was being withheld while military officials contact their families. More than 2,600 American troops have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, according to a tally by The Associated Press. At least 2,100 of those were killed by hostile action.

After the Kurdish leader ordered the Iraqi national flag removed and replaced with a Kurdish one, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said Sunday that the national flag "is the only one which must be hoisted on each bit of Iraq's land."

An Army investigator has recommended that four soldiers accused of murder in an Iraqi raid face the death penalty. Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr. made the recommendation in report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. Daniel found several aggravating factors that warrant a sentence of death in the case of four soldiers accused of killing three men during a May raid in Iraq.

Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a new videotape Saturday along with a man identified as an American member of the terror network, inviting Americans to convert to Islam. The 41-minute video, posted on an Islamic militant Web site, had footage of al-Zawahri and a man the video identified as Adam Yehiye Gadahn, who has appeared in past al Qaeda videos with the nom de guerre of Azzam al-Amriki.

Iraq's government has formally taken over the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, site of an abuse scandal by U.S. soldiers, the U.S. military said Saturday. Coalition forces transferred operations of the prison to the Iraqi Justice Ministry on Friday, said a military spokesman for detainee operations.

Police found the tortured and blindfolded bodies of 13 Pakistani and Indian pilgrims and their Iraqi driver south of Baghdad Saturday. Attacks across the rest of Iraq left at least nine people dead. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because announcements were being made by Iraqi authorities, said al-Saeedi had been arrested along with three other individuals southwest of Baqouba.

The U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi authorities have announced numerous arrests after al-Zarqawi was killed that officials claim have thrown al Qaeda in Iraq into disarray.

But rampant sectarian violence and other attacks have continued, with at least 20 Iraqis killed in bomb attacks and shootings on Sunday.

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©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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