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| Iraq |
| More on the demise of Abu Azzam |
| 2005-09-27 |
| U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Tuesday their forces had killed the No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization in a weekend raid in Baghdad, claiming to have struck a âpainful blowâ to the countryâs most feared insurgent group. Abdullah Abu Azzam led al-Qaidaâs operations in Baghdad, planning a brutal wave of suicide bombings in the capital since April, killing hundreds of people, officials said. He also controlled the finances for foreign fighters that flowed into Iraq to join the insurgency. Abu Azzam, who an Iraqi government spokesman said was an Iraqi, was the top deputy to the groupâs leader, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Azzam was on a list of Iraqâs 29 most-wanted insurgents issued by the U.S. military in February and had a bounty of $50,000 on his head. Al-Qaida in Iraq denied that Abu Azzam was the No. 2 leader of the organization and said âit was not confirmedâ that he was killed. âAbu Azzam was one of al-Qaidaâs many soldiers and is the leader of one of its battalions operating in Baghdad,â the group said in an Internet statement by its spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi. It called the U.S. and Iraqi claims that he was the groupâs top deputy âa futile attempt ... to raise the morale of their troops.â Elsewhere, a suicide bomber attacked Iraqis applying for jobs as policemen Tuesday in Baqouba, 30 miles north of Baghdad, killing nine and wounding 21. The U.S. military also said a Marine was killed Monday by a roadside bomb in the town of Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad. The death brought to 1,918 the number of U.S. troops who have died since the Iraq war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Police found the bodies of 22 Iraqi men who had been shot to death in southern Iraq, many of them bound and blindfolded, said Maj. Felah Al-Mohammedawi of the Interior Ministry. Their identities were not immediately known, but the district â northeast of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad â is mostly Shiite. It was not immediately clear what effect Abu Azzamâs death would have on al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been one of the deadliest militant groups, carrying out suicide attacks that targeted the countryâs Shiite majority. The U.S. military has claimed to have killed or captured leading al-Zarqawi aides in the past and attacks have continued unabated â although Abu Azzam appeared to be a more significant figure. Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba called the killing of Abu Azzam a âpainful blowâ to al-Qaida, but warned that the group would likely carry out revenge attacks. Abu Azzam was killed early Sunday when U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told the AP. âThey went in to capture him, he did not surrender, and he was killed in the raid,â Boylan said. The Iraqi and U.S. forces targeted the building after a tip from an Iraqi citizen, Kubba said. During the raid, the troops captured another militant in the apartment with Abu Azzam, Kubba said. Abu Azzam â whose real name is Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed Al-Jawari â was the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Kubba and Boylan said. He had claimed responsibility for the assassinations of a number of top politicians, including a car bomb in May 2004 that killed Izzadine Saleem, the president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, and a July 2004 attack that killed the governor of Nineveh province, the military said. He was the groupâs âamirâ or leader in Anbar, the vast western province that is the heartland of the insurgency, until spring, when he became the amir in Baghdad and led operations in and around the capital. He was âresponsible for the recent upsurge in violent attacks in the city since April 2005,â the military said. âWe continue to decimate the leadership of the al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network and continue to disrupt their operations,â said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman. âBy taking Abu Azzam off the street, another close associate of Zarqawi, we have dealt another serious blow to al-Zarqawiâs terrorist organization.â Abu Azzam âpersonally planned and ordered suicide car bomb attacksâ in Baghdad and was responsible for financing for the group and its âinternational communications,â Kubba said. Abu Azzamâs death was followed by two other successes against al-Qaida in Iraqâs leadership, officials said â the groupâs leader in the northern city of Mosul surrendered to the Iraqi military, and its leader in the town of Karabila in the sensitive region near the Syrian border was killed. The Karabila leader, identified only as Abu Nasser, died along with several others Monday in a raid on the groupâs headquarters in the city, Kubba told a news conference, without elaborating. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei, the Iraqi presidentâs national security adviser, said Abu Nasser was killed in a U.S. airstrike. The U.S. military confirmed an airstrike in the region Monday, but gave no details on casualties. The area near the Syrian border is key to the infiltration of foreign fighters joining Iraqâs insurgency. Kubba acknowledged that âforeigners move freelyâ in the region. The Baqouba suicide bomber slipped into a building where the Iraqis were applying to join Iraqâs Quick Reaction Police Force, said a commander who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about his security. Nine Iraqis were killed and 21 wounded in the blast, said Adhid Mitaâab, an official at Baqouba General Hospital. The attack, along with the news of the Marineâs death, raised to at least 62 the number of people killed in the past three days in Iraq, less than a month before a national referendum on Iraqâs draft constitution. In Baghdad, visiting NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer opened a long-awaited training academy for Iraqi military officers. âThis center makes and marks a significant step toward a more secure Iraq,â de Hoop Scheffer said after hoisting a NATO flag over the center. âNATO is here to help the Iraqi government to develop the tools it needs.â NATOâs role in Iraq has been limited to training Iraqi forces and supplying equipment, due to opposition for a wider role led by France and Germany. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
#10 There is a guy named Abdul Rahman Yasin listed on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list. He was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was believed to be hiding in Iraq. You think this could be the same guy? If so, that would be quite a coup. Hmm. The 1993 WTC bombing? |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-09-27 20:41 |
| #9 Lt. Col. Steve Boylan Army Of Steve back on the job. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2005-09-27 17:30 |
| #8 Gotta be the same guy: http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/teryasin.htm |
| Posted by: baker2575 2005-09-27 17:09 |
| #7 There is a guy named Abdul Rahman Yasin listed on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list. He was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was believed to be hiding in Iraq. You think this could be the same guy? If so, that would be quite a coup. |
| Posted by: baker2575 2005-09-27 16:21 |
| #6 Thanks Steve. I'd been looking for that all day. It doesn't appear that this guy is on the Iraqi gov't's February list of top 29 bad dudes, however. |
| Posted by: baker2575 2005-09-27 16:13 |
| #5 ...and Allan knows best. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-09-27 15:57 |
| #4 Had to dig, but I found the guy in Mosul; In north Iraq, a top aide to al-Zarqawi surrendered to police in the city of Mosul, Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Ali Attalah said Monday. The aide, Abdul Rahman Hasan Shahin, was one of the most wanted figures in Mosul, Attalah said. |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-09-27 15:49 |
| #3 US forces nearly bagged Zarqawi, but he reportedly bailed out under a bridge while leaving his laptop in the car, both of which were later found. Could it be that Zarqawi not only let key data fall into coalition hands but didn't change the payroll around despite accidentally (by not grabbing his laptop) compromising his lieutenants?? |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-09-27 15:48 |
| #2 I gotta feeling we got a copy of their leadership phone book somewhere. OPSEC? What's that? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-27 13:58 |
| #1 Who was it that surrendured in Mosul? Was it someone on the list of 29 most wanted? |
| Posted by: baker2575 2005-09-27 13:35 |