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Bush says Azzam death shows Iraq strategy working

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 11:51 CDT

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush cited on Wednesday the killing of al Qaeda's Abu Azzam as a sign that the U.S. strategy in Iraq was defeating a violent insurgency, although he warned there will be more violence before next month's vote on a new constitution.

Azzam, who was shot and killed in Baghdad, was "the second-most wanted al Qaeda leader in Iraq," and a top lieutenant of insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Bush said in his second speech in a week on fighting terrorism.

"This guy's a brutal killer," he said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by three generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was using a walking stick after recent aneurysm surgery behind both knees.

"He was reported to be the top operational commander of al Qaeda in Baghdad. He is one of the terrorists responsible for the recent upsurge in attacks in the Iraqi capital, which is part of their campaign to stop a referendum on the Iraqi constitution," Bush said.

The president again warned that insurgents would escalate violence in Iraq before an October 15 referendum on a new constitution, and before elections in December. "As these milestones approach we can expect there to be increasing violence from the terrorists. They can't stand elections," he said.

More than 1,900 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, and the American public is expressing growing uneasiness over the war in opinion polls.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll published last week found 63 percent of respondents said some or all of the U.S. troops in Iraq should be withdrawn, and a record-high 59 percent said the invasion was a mistake.

Bush's popularity rose after the September 11, 2001, attacks, as he was seen as a strong leader in the fight against terrorism.

CHANGING STRATEGIES

Bush said the U.S. military was changing its strategies and tactics in Iraq to adapt to the changing operations of the insurgency.

"Our strategy is clear in Iraq, we are hunting down high value targets like Azzam and Zarqawi," Bush said.

Iraqi forces are taking an increasing role in security operations and holding control of cities where military operations have flushed out insurgents, he said.

Recently in Tal Afar, Iraqi security forces outnumbered coalition forces for the first time in a major operation, Bush said.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the Bush administration had failed to put forward a clear strategy for success in Iraq.

"Our troops and the American people need the president to pay more than just lip service to a strategy for the war in Iraq, they need him to lay out what that strategy is with clear markers by which success can be measured," Reid said.

"The American people and Congress are growing increasingly frustrated with the refusal of the Bush administration to come clean and talk straight about the war in Iraq," he said.

Azzam was tracked to a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad where he was shot on Sunday. Al Qaeda in a statement on an Islamist Web site, the authenticity of which could not be verified, denied Azzam was Zarqawi's deputy.

U.S. forces have been hunting for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks and Zarqawi for the Iraq insurgency, but so far have not captured them.

Source: REUTERS

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