"Shazzam! He's Deader Than a Dead Mouse, Sargent!
Posted on 09/27/2005 4:57:11 PM PDT by Dog
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-Qaida 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, Lieutenant Colonel 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.
Al-Qaida 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 15. "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.
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.
Iraqi officials said he had been behind the killing of a number of top politicians, including that of Izzadine Saleem, the president of the then governing council, who died in a car bombing in May 2004 and an ambush that killed the governor of Nineveh province. There were discrepancies over his nationality, with some officials calling him a Syrian Palestinian; others an Iraqi. But he was on a list of the US's most-wanted insurgents in Iraq and had a $50,000 (£30,000) reward on his head.
Washington is offering a $25m reward for the capture of Zarqawi, whose group has claimed responsibility for scores of kidnappings, beheadings and suicide bombings and who recently urged all-out war against Iraq's majority Shias.
There were more setbacks for al-Qaida's operations in western Iraq, with the death of a militant known as Abu Naseer. Wafiq al-Samaraei, the national security adviser to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, said Abu Naseer had been killed during a US air strike in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border. He said 28 others were also killed in the air strike which had targeted "an insurgent safe house".
Meanwhile, Zarqawi's senior operative in Mosul, Abdul Rahman Hasan Shahin, gave himself up to the Iraqi military, according to officials.
Wonder who they nabbed..
And while they are on their back foot and off balance is the perfect time to butt stroke them into oblivion. Time to take out the trash and feed it to the woodchipper
sweet!
Someone else was in that apartment with Azzam..
Gee, they might not have ought to have gloated over the hurricanes in the U.S. It has not been a very good few days for the terrorists. I don't know . . .
Woohoo!
Just received a telemarketing call asking if I wanted to be AQ's #2 in Iraq.
Hung up on them, like all the rest.
Yeah baby!!
When do they come out with the "Our top ten guys" list? Or is it updated daily?
Ever have mice in your house or rats in your barn? Takes a while to get to them ALL doesn't it?
More news the Dinosaur Media will not tell you. That is significant. How many others of these thugs have surrendered so far? Z's got a serious morale prob if these "true believers" are starting to surrender instead of becoming martyrs
Good news!
Another great thing about that is that it was the Iraqi military. They are really coming along!
" second-in-command of al-Qaida in Iraq "
Every day the MSM prints stories that our guys have nabbed this Al Queda and that Al Queda.
And every day the Democrats and the same media tell us with a straight face,
that Iraq has nothing to do with defeating Al Queda.
They're trying that now? I had been getting CAR-RT junk mail promising 65 or 70-something virgins (can't rememebr the exact number) with a toll free 666 number to call. I've just been putting it in the round file.
"Shazzam! He's Deader Than a Dead Mouse, Sargent!
You didn't get Chris MAtthew's memo? Yes, yes, yes....we have to admit that al qeeda is NOW in Iraq. BUT BUT BUT!!! They were NOT there before the war, thus Bush has made things worse.....that's the story.
Remember, Al Qaeda was in Florida and went through Boston's Logan airport security....but they were NEVER in Iraq before the war!!! LOL!
Major Kudos to the good guys with the bad attitudes and painted faces.
Helen Thomas??? [barf alert added to this post]
This is the big news, as it provides huge strategic AND psychological value.
'Could be the beginning of the end for the jihadis in Iraq.
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