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UPDATE:

BLOG:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/us_names_al_qaeda_em.php

“US names al Qaeda emir of Mosul killed during raid”
By BILL ROGGIO
June 26, 2008 6:02 PM

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The US military has identified al Qaeda’s leader of Mosul who was killed during a targeted raid in the northern city on June 24.

Multinational Forces Iraq named Abu Khalaf as al Qaeda’s emir, or leader, of Mosul who was killed during a raid by Task Force 88, the hunter-killer teams assigned to disrupt terrorist command networks in Iraq and elsewhere. Khalaf was killed by US forces as he reached for a gun and his associate attempted to detonate his vest.

Khalaf “rose through the ranks to become the overall emir of Mosul,” the US military stated. He served as al Qaeda’s military commander in Mosul during the rule of former al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

He would meet with senior al Qaeda leaders in Mosul and the Jazeera desert “coordinating and ordering dozens of attacks against Iraqi citizens, Iraqi forces and Coalition forces.”

Khalaf had close ties to foreign al Qaeda terrorists, according to his associates in custody. “Khalaf traveled much of the time with foreigners,” the US military said. Abu Khalud, his aide wearing the suicide vest at the time of his death, was a Syrian national.

The US military has decimated al Qaeda’s command network in Mosul since major operations kicked off early this year.”