THE LEADER of al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq was on the verge of capture in March 2005, according to details uncovered in the WikiLeaks’ release of almost 400,000 classified documents – but was able to evade forces because a helicopter monitoring him ran out of fuel.

Because the British surveillance aircraft had to return to base to have its fuel supply replenished, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – a Jordanian man considered Osama bin Laden’s deputy in Iraq – was able to evade surveillance for a further 15 months.

The Observer said that the report, filed on March 17 2005, showed that British intelligence had picked up Zarqawi travelling on a motorway from Amarah to Basra – and later discovered his car at an off-road side about 60 miles north of the latter city.

While US helicopters usually travel in pairs in case one is attacked or malfunctions, British choppers ordinarily flew alone – meaning that when the helicopter had to return to its base, Zarqawi’s car went unsupervised for a full 20 minutes.

When ground troops had been sent in to cordon the area, there was no sign of Zarqawi – who was not found again until June 2006, when American forces launched an air strike on the house in which he was staying northn of Baghdad, killing him and his family.

The head of MI5 at the time has since said that removing the regime of Saddam Hussein had potentially given al-Qaeda a headstart in building a full operation within the country, with an incohesive approach from the invading coalition unable to quickly replace Hussein’s regime with a stable one of their own.