World

U.S.: Al-Zarqawi Aide Killed

October 26, 2004 / 2:29 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A U.S. airstrike in Fallujah on Tuesday killed an aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said, while Iraqi officials investigated whether insurgents got inside information that helped them kill about 50 U.S.-trained soldiers.

The U.S. military said the early morning raid struck a safehouse used by al-Zarqawi's group. U.S. forces have stepped up aerial and artillery assaults on Fallujah in recent weeks in an attempt to root out insurgents.

Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, fell under rebel control after the Bush administration ordered Marines to lift their three-week siege of the city in April.

The United States has offered a $25 million bounty for the capture or killing of al-Zarqawi, whose group has claimed responsibility in numerous suicide bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages.

"Recent strikes and raids targeting the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network have severely degraded its ability to conduct attacks," the U.S. statement said. It did not give the name of the slain al-Zarqawi aide.

In other developments:

The U.S. military said Tuesday they had discovered a car bomb and secured the area before it detonated in the northern city of Mosul.

A government official was gunned down on his way to work Tuesday while a roadside bomb attack left one policeman dead in the central Iraqi town of Baqouba, Iraqi officials said. Ali Niema, a Diayala provincial official in charge of education, was killed in a morning drive-by shooting in the city, according to Najim Aboud, a deputy governor of Diyala province.

The White House played down the significance of the announcement by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog that nearly 400 tons of explosives were missing from a facility that had played an active role in Saddam Hussein's efforts to build nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry accused President Bush of "incredible incompetence" and his campaign said the administration "must answer for what may be the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series of blunders in Iraq."

The labor union that represents 23,000 current and former U.S. foreign service workers called on Monday for a security buildup in response to the death of an American diplomat in Iraq. John W. Limbert, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said the union recognizes it is impossible to provide 100 percent protection "for our personnel who staff the front lines of American diplomacy." But he said much work remains to be done to bring U.S. embassies, consulates and missions up to security standards.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials said there was an investigation underway into the deadly ambush of about 50 U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers Saturday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Salih Sarhan said, "The investigation is underway and we are still collecting information. ...The investigation is mainly to know whether there was any information leakage."

The attack on the soldiers, who were returning home on leave, occurred on a remote eastern Iraq highway when their buses were stopped by insurgents at a fake checkpoint, according to police and defense officials.

Some of the bodies were found in rows — shot execution-style through the head — at a site about 95 miles east of Baghdad, the Defense Ministry said. Other bodies were found on a burned bus nearby.

Iraqi police and soldiers have been increasingly targeted by insurgents, mostly with car bombs and mortar shells. However, the fact that the insurgents were able to strike at so many unarmed soldiers in such a remote region suggested the guerrillas may have had advance word on the soldiers' travel.

"There was probably collusion among the soldiers or other groups," Diyala province's Deputy Gov. Aqil Hamid al-Adili told Al-Arabiya television. "Otherwise, the gunmen would not have gotten the information about the soldiers' departure from their training camp and that they were unarmed."

Last week, a U.S. defense official in Washington described Iraq's security forces as "heavily infiltrated" by insurgents, saying some members of the Iraqi security services have developed sympathies and contacts with the guerrillas. In other instances, infiltrators were sent to join the security services, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Al-Zarqawi's group, renamed al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack on an Islamic Web site, but there was no way to verify the claim's authenticity.

Dozens of suspect police officers and Iraqi soldiers have been arrested across Iraq for insurgent ties, although U.S. and Iraqi officials declined to release numbers.

In September, U.S. troops arrested a senior Iraqi National Guard commander, Lt. Gen. Talib al-Lahibi, for insurgent ties. Al-Lahibi was arrested in Diyala province near where Saturday's massacre occurred.

And last month, U.S. troops arrested an Iraqi National Guard battalion commander, Col. Daham Abd, allegedly for providing ammunition, money and information to the insurgents near the northern city of Kirkuk.

A recent mortar attack Oct. 19 on an Iraqi National Guard compound near Baghdad is being viewed as a probable inside job.

The attackers apparently knew precisely when and where the unit's members were gathering and dropped mortar rounds in the middle of their formation. At least four Iraqis were killed and 80 wounded.