Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders killed, U.S. and Iraqi officials say

[darrels joy]

Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders killed, U.S. and Iraqi officials say

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 19, 2010; 2:12 PM


BAGHDAD -- Two leaders of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq have been killed in an airstrike carried out by American troops, Iraqi and U.S. officials announced Monday.

The deaths of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq is known, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the alias of the head of an umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, should disrupt insurgent attacks inside the country, officials said. Their slayings could also provide Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a decisive political boost at a critical time.

"The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency," Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, said in a statement. "There is still work to do, but this is a significant step forward in ridding Iraq [of] terrorists."

The Saturday night raid was carried out a few miles southwest of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, U.S. officials said, after a series of Iraqi-led operations led to a safe house used by the insurgent leaders. An American soldier was killed during the operation when a helicopter crashed.

Masri and Baghdadi were killed after "engaging the security team," the U.S. military said. Maliki said their bodies were found in a ditch. "We have found a lot of documents and hand-written letters" that implicated the men, the prime minister added.

Security forces also killed Masri's assistant and one of Baghdadi's sons, the U.S. military said. Iraqi troops took 16 men into custody after the raid.

In Washington, Vice President Biden declared that the operation demonstrated the growing strength of the Iraqi security forces. "The Iraqis led this operation," Biden told reporters, adding that Iraqis also gathered the intelligence that led to the targeting. "In short, the Iraqis have taken the lead."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs described the United States as playing a supporting role.

Masri, an Egyptian, rose to the helm of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization after former leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June 2006. Masri reportedly moved to Iraq after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to help form the Iraqi branch of the organization.

The U.S. military did not provide a real name for Masri, who also went by the alias Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. Officials in Washington said in 2006 that Masri's real name was Yusuf al-Dardiri, The Washington Post reported. The U.S. military identified Baghdadi on Monday as Hamid Dawud Muhammad Khalil al-Zawi.

While Masri joined Egyptian radical groups as a young man and became a protégé of Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri -- the No. 2 man in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network -- less was known about Baghdadi. Allegedly born in Iraq, he was seen by some U.S. intelligence officials as a fictionalized character, invented to bolster the standing among Iraqis of the umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Baghdadi was known by several other aliases and was reported on several occasions to have been killed or captured.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq emerged as the largest and deadliest insurgent group in Iraq years ago, spawned by widespread dissatisfaction in Sunni communities after Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, was driven from power by U.S. invasion forces in April 2003.

The group was significantly weakened after the U.S. troop surge in 2007. But recent attacks, which killed hundreds of people, showed that the Islamic State of Iraq umbrella group remained powerful and raised questions about the Iraqi government's ability to maintain order as U.S. troops withdraw.

In the past, Iraqi officials had announced the capture or killing of top al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders who turned out to be free and alive.

The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for a series of powerful recent attacks on government buildings, hotels, embassies and other targets. The group said it sees the Shiite-led Iraqi government as an illegitimate byproduct of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

Recent audio messages posted on insurgent Web sites have been attributed to Baghdadi. In the statements, the organization has vowed to continue attacking symbols of the state and entities that support it. The group had threatened to derail the parliamentary elections that were held March 7.

Maliki has questioned the results of the elections, in which a Sunni-backed bloc won a slim plurality of seats.

Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim and Aziz Alwan in Baghdad and staff writer Anne E. Kornblut in Washington contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...901693_pf.html