Brigadier General Ralph Baker, a senior officer in Baghdad, said no one could deny that the killing of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri, who had direct links with Osama bin Laden, was a “decapitation” for its leadership.
The SITE Intelligence Group reported that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the al-Qa'ida front in the country, had in a statement posted on jihadist Internet forums announced for the first time the deaths of the two men.
But the insurgents also vowed in the message that other insurgents would take their place, under plans put in place ahead of the Iraqi-US military strike that killed them in a house north of Baghdad on April 18.
General Baker cautioned that the killing of AQI's previous military leader, the much better known Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who died in a US airstrike in 2006, had shown the insurgents were capable of rebuilding.
But he said AQI was weaker now than then, and it would be harder for it to regenerate after hundreds of arrests in recent months.
“When Zarqawi was killed, someone stepped up and took his place,” General Baker said in Baghdad.
“This time we believe there are less charismatic and combat-proven leaders remaining in Al-Qa'ida that can step up and resume that leadership role as effectively as has been accomplished in the past.”
Since January, Iraqi intelligence and security services, with US support, have captured or arrested 404 Al-Qa'ida members, according to General Baker.
“Dozens of those AQI members have been mid- to upper-level leadership,” he said. “But it's just not the leadership that Al-Qa'ida will have trouble finding replacements for.”
He said the US knew “they are having great difficulties recruiting suicide bombers” because of better security on Iraq's border with Syria.
Although Iraq's government, US forces and Washington trumpeted the success of the joint operation that killed Baghdadi and Masri, a series of car bomb attacks in Baghdad on Friday killed 54 people and wounded 201.
General Baker conceded that AQI was responsible, but argued that violence was falling overall, with security breaches down 40 per cent since American combat troops left Iraq's cities, towns and villages last June.
“We do believe those (car bombs) are attributed to Al-Qa'ida,” he said. “It is very difficult to stop every attack in this city of seven million citizens.”
In the Internet statement monitored by SITE, the ISI sharia (Islamic law) minister, Abu al-Walid Abd al-Wahhab al-Mashadani, said Baghdadi and Masri were attending a meeting when “enemy forces” engaged them and launched an airstrike.
The joint operation that targeted the main Al-Qa'ida leaders in Iraq took place 10km from Tikrit, the home city of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
Mr Mashadani praised Baghdadi and Masri and announced that other Islamist groups in Iraq had joined the ISI.
“Discussions had already begun with them before and after the initiative of Sheikh Abu Omar (al-Baghdadi),” he said.
“If Allah fated that the two sheikhs be killed at this particular time, know that they left a unique generation behind, one that was raised before their eyes.”
Baghdadi had been reported killed or captured at least three times before, and on those occasions Al-Qa'ida issued denials, insisting he was still alive and free, making Saturday's confirmation all the more significant.
A close aide of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told state television the discovery of Baghdadi and Masri's hideout was a greater military achievement than the capture of Saddam by American forces in December 2003.
Yassin Majeed said an intelligence cell created by Mr Maliki which last month caught Munaf Abdul Rahim al-Rawi, AQI's so-called “governor of Baghdad,” led to the detention of a “postman” who carried messages to Baghdadi. This eventually culminated in the operation that killed the top two AQI leaders.
“The next days will witness a new strike against al-Qa'ida,” Majeed added.
No comments:
Post a Comment