The second-in-command of al-Qaeda in Iraq was shot dead in Baghdad this week, the US military said today.
US and Iraqi forces tracked Abu Azzam, a right-hand man to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted man in Iraq, to a high-rise Baghdad apartment building where he was shot early on Sunday, a US military spokesman said.
"We had a tip from an Iraqi citizen that led us to him," the spokesman said. "We've been tracking him for a while."
Abu Azzam was shot dead in Baghdad on Sunday
Violence is continuing in Iraq, however. A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Iraqi police recruits north of Baghdad today, killing at least ten and wounding around 30, police said.
Azzam is believed to have commanded day-to-day operations in Baghdad and other cities, while also financing attacks and the passage of militants into Iraq from neighbouring countries. He was also a religious adviser to Zarqawi.
Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is allied to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network. His group has claimed many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, and recently pledged "all-out war" against Iraq's majority Shia population, an effort to provoke civil war and drive the country further into chaos.
Washington has offered a $25 million bounty for Zarqawi, who is believed to be hiding out in western Iraq.
US and Iraqi officials have warned of more violence in the run-up to a referendum on a new constitution on October 15th, when voters are expected to vote for a document drawn up by the Shia- and Kurdish-led government over Sunni Arab objections.