US forces kill Qaeda leader

2008-11-20 22:37

Baghdad - US forces killed a senior al-Qaeda leader wanted for planning suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, including the abduction and killing of a US army sergeant in 2004, the US military said on Thursday.

Haji Hammadi was a senior leader of the Sunni Islamist militant group in Garma and Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, Brigadier-General David Perkins, the spokesperson for US forces in Iraq, told a news conference.

US forces killed Hammadi during a raid in Baghdad's upmarket western Mansour district on November 11.

"The removal of a cold blooded killer of innocent Iraqis and US service personnel will further degrade the ability of al-Qaeda to carry out ... ruthless attacks in Iraq," Perkins said.

Hammadi has been affiliated to al-Qaeda in Iraq since its inception, Perkins said. He was wanted for organising and carrying out attacks and assassinations against US and Iraqi forces, government officials, US-backed neighbourhood patrols and Iraqi civilians.

These included the abduction and killing of US army Staff Sergeant Matt Maupin in 2004.

He was also responsible for a suicide bomb attack on a tribal council meeting in Garma on June 26 that killed 20 Iraqis, including Garma's mayor, three US Marines, one of them a battalion commander, and two translators, he said.

Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces supported by US firepower killed Abu Ghazwan, a senior al-Qaeda leader who made car bombs and ran Islamist militant cells in northern Iraq.

Al-Qaeda militants have been in retreat since Sunni Arab tribal leaders turned against them and formed US-backed neighbourhood patrols that drove them out of strongholds in western Iraq and Baghdad.

But they have kept a presence in northern Iraq and have shown themselves still capable of staging large-scale attacks.

- Reuters