IRAQ: US and Iraqi officials have claimed a significant victory in their fight against the country's most venomous insurgent group, saying the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed in a gunbattle in Baghdad. Another prominent figure in the organisation, led by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was also reported killed yesterday in western Iraq, while in the northern city of Mosul, its regional leader was said to have surrendered to the Iraqi military.
A US military spokesman, Lieut Col Steve Boylan, said Abdullah Abu Azzam had been shot dead when American and Iraqi forces raided an apartment block in north-west Baghdad early on Sunday. "We had a tip from an Iraqi citizen that led us to him," Col Boylan said. "We've been tracking him for a while. They went in to capture him, he did not surrender and he was killed in the raid." An Iraqi official said another man had been wounded in the raid and was now in American custody. It remains to be seen whether the series of blows to Zarqawi's group will dent its apparent ability to strike at will. There have been many previous announcements of arrests and killings of men described as key Zarqawi loyalists, but the bombings and assassinations have continued.
Abu Azzam, who was also known as the "Emir of Anbar" - the province west of Baghdad which is the nerve centre for Sunni Arab-led insurgency - is thought to have been in charge of finances for the group's foreign and Iraqi jihadis. He also oversaw operations in the greater Baghdad area and was Zarqawi's religious adviser, according to Col Boylan.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been behind some of the most destructive attacks since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and is regarded as a sophisticated and resilient enemy. But Col Boylan said Abu Azzam's death would be significant. "Any time you take out a top player in an organisation, it is bound to have a big effect." Laith Kubba, an Iraqi government spokesman, warned of more violence in the run-up to the constitutional referendum on October 15th. "These strikes against the terrorists will create a reaction," he told journalists in Baghdad. "No one is saying we can defeat terrorism in one operation. We are fighting on so many fronts, and we have to continue to enhance the power of the police and the army." But he said more and more Iraqi citizens were coming forward with information about insurgents.
Yesterday, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his chest entered a police station in Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, and detonated his bomb among a group of Iraqis applying to join the police. Nine were killed and 21 wounded in the third suicide attack on police targets in three days.
There were also grisly discoveries of bodies south of the capital in the mainly Shia city of Kut. Police said up to 22 men had been found on the banks of the Tigris river. Their hands had been tied behind their backs and they had been shot. - (Guardian Service)