'Treasure trove' of intelligence
2006-06-09 13:39
Jay Deshmukh
Baghdad - Iraqi and US authorities vowed on Friday to hunt down insurgency leaders after capturing a "treasure trove" of intelligence in the attack that killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Armed with former military officers as the country's new security chiefs and the information gathered from the raid that killed Zarqawi, Iraq and US forces were upbeat about tracking the dreaded militant's aides and other insurgency leaders.
"The resources that were allocated to track Zarqawi will now be directed to chase other people," Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor told AFP.
"The plan is to go after secondary targets."
New security ministers
On Thursday Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that Zarqawi was killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid near the restive city of Baquba.
An hour later he also announced the names of the men chosen to head the crucial security ministries.
Shi'ite Jawad Polani was appointed as the new interior minister, Sunni Abdel Qader al-Obeidi as defence minister and Shi'ite MP Shirwan al-Waili as the minister of state for national security. All three have military backgrounds.
Other targets
US military spokesperson Major General William Caldwell said raid came after a painstaking operation of searching for him since December 2004 and particularly in the past six weeks, which involved tracking the movements of his associates to reach the leader himself.
Caldwell now promised to track down other targets on the basis of information gathered during the killing of the militant leader.
"Now that we have got him, it allows us to go after the other targets we have been using to track his movements," the general said, adding that a "treasure trove" of intelligence documents related to the insurgency had been found in the house following the strike.
Another 17 operations against al-Qaeda militants were carried out in and around the Baghdad area on the same night that Zarqawi was hit, Caldwell said.
Zarqawi spiritual adviser tracked
The general singled out the tracking of what he described as Zarqawi's spiritual advisor, Sheikh Abdel Rahman, as being key to reaching the insurgent leader himself.
He said a tip off from within Zarqawi's circle enabled US forces to "deliver justice" against the wanted militant.
"Zarqawi's whereabouts and his movements and things came about through, obviously, Sheikh (Abdel) Rahman, through various means of other intelligence over the last couple of weeks," Caldwell told reporters.
Abdel Rahman "was brought to our attention by somebody within the network of Zarqawi's," said the military spokesperson.
Possible replacement
One possible target could be Egyptian-born militant Abu al-Masri, whom US authorities expect to take over from Zarqawi.
"It would probably be Abu al-Masri if you had to pick someone who would be the person that would try to occupy the position that Zarqawi had," Caldwell said.
The military has been aware of Masri's movements for some time and believe he first came to Iraq in 2002.
"He may have helped establish the first al-Qaeda cell in the Baghdad area," said Caldwell, adding that he has been involved in making roadside bombs and originally trained in Afghanistan.
- AFP