Third Iraqi al-Qaeda leader killed

IRAQI AND US troops yesterday killed a regional commander of al-Qaeda in Iraq, compounding the damage done to the movement by the slaying of two top leaders at the weekend. The latest fatality, who took the nom de guerre Abu Shuaib, ran operations in the three troubled northern provinces of Nineveh, Salahuddin and Tamim (Kirkuk).

On Monday, Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that Abu Ayub al-Masri, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who led the Islamic State in Iraq, were killed in joint action on Sunday.

Masri, an Egyptian, was appointed to lead the Iraq franchise by al-Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden following the death of its Palestinian chief Abu Mussab Zarqawi in 2006.

The Islamic State in Iraq, headed by Baghdadi, is an umbrella grouping for Sunni jihadi groups dedicated, in principle, to the restoration of a Muslim caliphate that would rule Arab lands from the Atlantic to the Gulf. In practice, it is a coalition created to recruit Iraqis and give an Iraqi personality to groups originally consisting of foreign fighters. The Islamic State in Iraq briefly ruled large swathes of territory in Nineveh.

An operative of al-Qaeda captured last month led US and Iraqi forces to all three men. The killing of these figures is likely to boost the standing of Mr Maliki who is seeking a second term as prime minister following the March 7th parliamentary poll. Over the past two years he has claimed credit for the build-up of the country’s armed forces and improvements in security. His aim is to persuade Iraqis that he should stay in office.

US vice-president Joe Biden called the slayings a “potentially devastating blow” to al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, if it is like its parent network, the group is likely to have a loosely connected cellular structure that is difficult to penetrate and decapitate. This is why it has taken so long to track down and eliminate senior figures. Rolling up the cells could depend on intelligence gathered from the 16 members of the group captured when Masri and Baghdadi were killed.

While it did not take long for al-Qaeda in Iraq to replace Zar- qawi and resume operations nearly four years ago, the current situation in Iraq may not lend itself to the movement’s revival. Zarqawi was slain at the height of Shia-on-Sunni attacks following the destruction of the golden dome of the Shia shrine at Samarra in February 2006. The Sunni insurgency was at its height.There were scores of daily attacks on US forces and Iraqi civilians. Arab and other foreign fighters were pouring into Iraq from neighbouring countries.