NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- A company commander of the Iraqi security forces who received a full briefing on the expected Falluja assault is missing from a military base where U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing for the possible operation.
The captain, a Kurd with no known ties to the Sunni city of Falluja, is thought to have taken notes from the battle briefing late Thursday. U.S. Marines and his fellow Iraqi officers found no sign of him Friday morning, except for his uniform and a weapon on his cot.
Marines are concerned that the information he knows could be passed along to insurgents. U.S. military sources believe insurgents have friends in the military and government.
The captain commands a company of about 160 men. He is among 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces expected to take part in the operation.
Marines say the captain's disappearance won't alter the tactics or timing of the Falluja operation.
Coalition officials hope the missing captain, who was not named, has merely headed home.
Most Kurds in Iraq live in the northeast corner of the country, several hundred miles from Falluja.
Falluja has been in insurgent hands since late April, when Marines were ordered to withdraw from the city's perimeter.
Responsibility for the city was given to a squad of former Iraqi soldiers and police who were from the city, but the insurgency has continued.
The Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terror network is based in Falluja, according to the U.S. and Iraqi governments.
The group has taken responsibility for car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings throughout Iraq. In mid-October, a statement from the terror group posted on an Islamist Web site declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
