Al-Zarqawi's number-two killed in Baghdad
US defence officials in Washington today confirmed that Abu Azzam, a leading deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, has been killed.
The US network CBS News, quoting Pentagon officials, reported that American forces killed Azzam in a house raid in Baghdad on Sunday. CBS described Azzam as Zarqawi’s top deputy, in control of financing foreign fighters coming into Iraq.
It was unclear if Azzam was the same individual as a man whose name appeared in February on a US list of the 29 most-wanted supporters of insurgent groups in Iraq.
Sheikh Abdalluh Abu Azzam, also know as Amir of Anbar, was listed as a Zarqawi lieutenant with a $50,000 (€41,500) reward for his capture.
Today, US and Iraqi officials in Baghdad said they had no additional information beyond what the defence officials in Washington had reported about the killing.
Earlier this month, al-Zarqawi declared “all-out war” on Shiites and vowed to kill anyone participating in the referendum.
Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, a top aide to al-Zarqawi surrendered to police in the city of Mosul, Iraqi army Brigadier General Ali Attalah said today. The aide, Abdul Rahman Hasan Shahin, was one of the most wanted figures in Mosul, Attalah said.
Today, a suicide bomber attacked Iraqis applying for jobs as policemen, killing nine and wounding 21.
Elsewhere, Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Baghdad to review the alliance’s training mission for the Iraqi military.
The unannounced visit was de Hoop Scheffer’s second trip to Iraq. He was accompanied by the alliance’s supreme commander for operations, US General James Jones.
Nato has for more than a year been training a small group of senior Iraqi military officers and is planning to expand that mission to include a staff academy to train the higher ranks of the Iraq’s armed forces.
The suicide attack occurred in Baqouba, 30 miles north of Baghdad, where the Iraqis were submitting applications to join Iraq’s Quick Reaction Police Force, said a police commander.
The blast, set off by explosives hidden under the insurgent’s clothing, occurred inside a police building where the applications were being filled out and accepted, the commander said.
Adhid Mita’ab, an official in Baqouba General Hospital, where the casualties were taken, said nine Iraqis were killed and 21 wounded. The commander confirmed those figures.
That raised to at least 61 the number of people killed in the past three days in Iraq, less than a month before a national referendum on Iraq’s draft constitution.
Politicians and insurgents in Iraq’s Arab Sunni minority have urged Iraqis to boycott the referendum or vote “no”. They believe a charter will fracture the country and seal the domination of the Shiite majority.
Yesterday, American and Iraqi officials tried to rally Sunni support for the referendum by releasing 500 detainees from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad to mark the coming Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a step called for by Sunni leaders.
But if two thirds of voters in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces reject the charter, a new government must be formed and the process of writing a constitution starts over.
In yesterday’s violence in Iraq, insurgents dragged five Shiite Muslim schoolteachers and their driver into a classroom, lined them against a wall and gunned them down.
The murders in Iraq’s notorious Triangle of Death south of Baghdad reflected the enflamed sectarian divisions ahead of the referendum.
The shooting was a rare attack on a school amid Iraq’s relentless violence, and it was particularly stunning since the gunmen targeted teachers in a school where the children were mainly Sunnis.
Also yesterday, a suicide attack and roadside bombings killed 10 Iraqis and three American soldiers.
During his visit to Iraq, de Hoop Scheffer hoisted a Nato flag over the alliance’s training mission headquarters in Baghdad and said the mission sent an important message.
“It is important of course for political reasons, Nato as an alliance of individual nations, reaffirming their commitments to Iraq,” he said.
The Nato training mission has 165 alliance personnel in Iraq and aims to turn out 900 Iraqi officers a year. Although it is dwarfed by the US-led coalition efforts to forge new Iraqi forces, alliance commanders stress the importance of their mission to train senior commanders.
“This is important because in this way it is possible to change the mentality of the Iraqi personnel,” said Major General Pier Giorgio Segala, the Italian deputy commander of the Nato mission.
Political opposition led by France and Germany has prevented the alliance from taking a wider role in Iraq and from helping equip Iraqi forces with tanks and other military hardware.
Sixteen of the 26 Nato nations are participating in the mission in Iraq. Others are providing funding or are training Iraqis outside the country.
The Iraqi and US governments have warned that Sunni Arab insurgents are likely to increase their attacks ahead of the October 15 national referendum.
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