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Man said to be Zarqawi's No. 2 killed in Baghdad

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 06:18 CDT

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command in Iraq, Abu Azzam, was shot dead in Baghdad this week, the U.S. military said on Tuesday, a potential a blow to the group at the heart of Iraq's insurgency.

U.S. and Iraqi forces tracked Azzam, said to be the right- hand man of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, to a high-rise apartment building where he was shot on Sunday, U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan said.

"We had a tip from an Iraqi citizen that led us to him," Boylan said. "We've been tracking him for a while."

The death may mark progress against militants but attacks continued unabated. A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Iraqi police recruits north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 10 and wounding about 30, police said.

It is uncertain how much intelligence Azzam's killing will deliver, particularly since it appears he was shot without being interrogated.

The U.S. military has moved in on Zarqawi in the past, only to see him slip through their hands and attacks persist or even pick up.

Azzam was believed to have commanded day-to-day operations in Baghdad and other cities, while financing attacks and the passage of militants into Iraq from neighboring countries. He was also a religious adviser to Zarqawi, Boylan said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was expected to give more details at a news conference scheduled for 1100 GMT.

It is not known if Azzam, believed to be Palestinian, was alone when he was killed. The U.S. military said he had claimed responsibility in the past for killing a member of Iraq's former Governing Council and the governor of the city of Mosul.

His death followed the capture or killing of several associates of Zarqawi's in recent months, including a driver and several junior commanders, that have led U.S. forces to believe they may be closing in on Zarqawi himself.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is allied to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. His group has claimed many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, and has pledged all-out war against Iraq's majority Shi'ite population, an effort to provoke civil war and drive the country further into chaos.

Washington has offered a $25 million bounty for Zarqawi, who U.S. commanders say is hiding out in western Iraq.

STEP UP IN VIOLENCE

U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of more violence in the run-up to a referendum on a new constitution on October 15, when voters are expected to say "Yes" to a document drawn up by the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government over Sunni Arab objections.

Boylan said he was not sure how much intelligence was gathered at the site where Azzam was shot, adding that either way the operation was a blow to al Qaeda's operations in Iraq.

"This shows that we are actively going after the network. We've taken down the number two in the network and that is going to have an impact," he said. "And whoever replaces him as number two, we will go after him as well."

Sheikh Abdullah Abu Azzam was also known as the Emir of Anbar, the province west of Baghdad that has been the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency. A $50,000 reward was on offer for information leading to his death or capture.

In Baquba, 65 kms (40 miles) north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber strapped with explosives mingled among a crowd of hundreds of police recruits in the center of town and blew himself up, killing at least 10 and wounding 26.

Police said the death toll was expected to rise.

The bomber approached the police station on foot, dressed in black and making no attempt to conceal his suicide vest, Specialist Jeff Young of the U.S. military told Reuters.

Young, speaking from the U.S.-Iraqi Joint Coordination Center in Diyala province, said the police station normally recruited trainees twice a month. The recruits usually formed a long queue on a busy road in the town.

Iraqi police and army recruits are a frequent target of guerrillas determined to destroy U.S. and Iraqi government attempts to build up security forces to tackle the insurgency.

There were other attacks elsewhere. In Baghdad, gunmen fired on a convoy of Iraqi police vehicles taking detainees to Abu Ghraib prison, killing two and wounding 12, among them police and detainees, the Interior Ministry said.

Violence has increased in the run-up to the constitution referendum, which threatens to divide the country along sectarian lines, with Sunni Arabs strongly opposed to many elements in the document, and Shi'ites and Kurds lined up on the other side of the debate.

Tension is running high since the referendum falls four days before Saddam is due to be tried for crimes against humanity in connection with the death of about 150 Shi'ite men following an assassination attempt in 1982.

(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Mussab al-Khairalla, Sebastian Alison and Mohammed Ramahi in Baghdad and Faris al-Mehdawi in Baquba)

Source: REUTERS

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