BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 5, 2006
Al Qaeda Iraq Chief Killed In Raid?
U.S. Military Says It's 'Highly Unlikely'; DNA Tests Are Being Done
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U.S. officials are on the trail of Abu Ayyub Al-Masri, who also goes by the name Sheik Abu Hamza Al-Muhajer, and is believed to be the current leader of the terror group al Qaeda in Iraq. (Dept. of Defense)
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The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Major. Gen. William Caldwell, points to a map of Baghdad, Oct. 4, 2006, as he discusses a district-by-district sweep of the capital by U.S. and Iraqi forces. (AP)
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A U.S. military official says it is "highly unlikely" that al-Masri is the man who two Arab satellite TV channels have reported to have been among those killed near Haditha in a raid by U.S. forces.
"We suspect one of those killed is Abu Ayyub al-Masri," said Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal. "We are holding DNA tests to find out if he is."
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said a number of al Qaeda suspects were killed in a recent raid in western Anbar province and initially "we thought there was a possibility al-Masri was among them."
"As we did further analysis, we determined that it was highly unlikely that he was killed," Johnson told the Associated Press.
Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal said the raid took place two days ago, but he and Johnson refused to give further details.
On Sunday, Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, told reporters U.S. and Iraqi forces were closing in on al-Masri.
But on Wednesday, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Willian Caldwell sounded more skeptical.
"I'd love to tell you we're going to get him tonight," he told reporters. "But, obviously, that's a very key, critical target for all of us operating here in Iraq. ... We feel very comfortable that we're continuing to move forward very deliberately in an effort to find him and kill or capture him."
Caldwell said a personal assistant to al-Masri had been captured in a Sept. 28 raid in Baghdad, the second figure close to the al Qaeda in Iraq chief to be captured that month. "We're obviously gleaning some key critical information from those individuals and others that have been picked up," he said.
Caldwell also said the military has killed or captured an increasing number of suspected members of al Qaeda in Iraq, the most feared Sunni insurgent group. In September, 110 al Qaeda suspects were killed and 520 detained.
Al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, took over al Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7 in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaeda's No.2 official in 1982. He joined al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and trained as a car bombing expert before traveling to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
In other recent developments:
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- The new Middle East is in the process of being born. It's the old one that is causing all the mayhem and it is definitely going through its death throes.The neo-cons who planned the invasion may or may not have taken into account the sectarian and tribal divisions that have wracked the region for millenia, but ultimately their decision was the correct one. The Middle East needed a catalyst to help it break out of its "Dark Eons", and the U.S. has provided that impetus.
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- "The sectarian spiral of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis has become the deadliest violence in Iraq, with thousands slain in recent months."
Yet Bush, et.al. still look straight in the lens and deny there is a civil war going on. Makes you wonder how many more thousands need to die before it meets their definition of civil war, huh?
Bubba abandoned Afghanistan and wandered off to Iraq with dreams of a new middle east. Well folks, he made a new one alright..... - Reply to this comment
