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Iraq
Pentagon: Top Zarqawi Aide Killed
2005-09-27
The No. 2 al Qaeda leader in Iraq was killed Sunday night, U.S. officials say. Abu Azzam, reportedly the deputy to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, was shot during a house rain in Baghdad, according to Pentagon officials. As the aide to Zarqawi, Azzam was reportedly in control of financing foreign fighters coming into Iraq, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. According to Pentagon officials coalition troops raided the house in response to a tip. When Azzam opened fire, these officials say, he was killed with troops' return fire.
1. "You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
2. "Hokay."
3. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
4. "Rosebud!"
What effect this will have on the insurgency remains to be seen. In the past, key Zarqawi lieutenants have been killed or captured without any decrease in the number of suicide bombings.
Probably there'll be a short-term drop-off, then things'll pick up again.
Also Sunday, at least 33 Iraqis were killed during a day of stepped-up violence. Gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ambushed an Iraqi patrol in an eastern Baghdad slum, and U.S. forces joined a 90-minute gunbattle, killing as many as eight of the attackers in the first significant violence in the neighborhood in nearly a year. There is no word as to whether these partrols were associated with the house raid that led to the killing of Azzam.
Posted by:Fred

#3  Interesting comment, Steve. Since he was was reportedly in control of financing foreign fighters coming into Iraq I was just about to comment what a shame it is that they didn't get him alive. Here's hoping that they did.
Posted by: 2b   2005-09-27 09:18  

#2  DEBKAfile: September 27, 2005: The Abu Azzam reported killed in Baghdad is not Zarqawi’s most notorious senior lieutenant. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources strongly doubt that the man reported dead is in fact the Abu Azzam believed in charge of financing and arranging the movement of foreign fighters into western Iraq from Syria and other countries. His death has in fact not been officially announced.

Funny, it looks official to me.

On March 19, coalition forces announced his capture in Baghdad. it was reported in DEBKA-Net-Weekly in the same week. He was then commanding Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s forces in the capital. Since then, according to our information, he has been held and interrogated by US forces.

Hummm, witness protection program, "crossfire" or DEBKA not knowing what they are talking about?
Posted by: Steve   2005-09-27 09:12  

#1  I'm looking for work right now. I'll let you all know if I see that "Assistant Regional Manager" role for Al Queda in Iraq pop back up in Monster.com. It seems they just took the ad down about a month ago. That job must suck. The customers hate you, the boss is always hanging you out to dry and the competition is literally killing you. I guess he took it for the black eyed bennies.
Posted by: JAB   2005-09-27 00:09  

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