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Al Qaeda in Iraq # 2 man killed

Reuters via Washington Post:

U.S. and Iraqi forces have shot dead the second-in-command of al Qaeda in Iraq, dealing what a U.S. commander called on Tuesday a serious blow to the militant group at the heart of Iraq's insurgency.

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

"We got specific information and intelligence that led us to him," Boylan said. "We've been tracking him for a while."

The death suggested progress against the two-year-old insurgency, particularly as the military said Azzam was behind a surge in violence in Baghdad since April that has killed and maimed hundreds. But attacks continued unabated.

Well Reuters, did you expect operations all ready in progress to cease?

The attrition of leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq will have a significant effect on its ability to operate with cohesion and command and control all of which will have a wearing effect on the enemy's ability to operate. It also makes other leaders less secure and more likely to make a mistake or be caught while moving from one hideout to another. My primary target would be enemy leadership figures.

Update: Knight-Ridder reports that the operation ws onducted by special forces troops in Iraq. They add:

However, two things about Azzam's death could prove to be significant. First, the fact that someone betrayed his whereabouts suggests that the United States and its Iraqi and other allies are getting at least some valuable real-time intelligence about the insurgency. Second, Azzam may have had other intelligence information in his possession that could be useful in disrupting terrorist plans and hunting down other members of al-Zarqawi's group, or even its elusive leader.

Al Qaeda's attacks on Iraqis have made it much easier for the US to get information on its operations and this has led to several decapitation strikes with either troops are smart bombs. They are no longer easily swimming in a sea of civilians as pointed out in the story above about operations near the Syrian border. It should also be pointed out that this latest Azzam to die was an Iraqi so it is clear that the Iraqis are turning in not just the foreign fighters.

See also this analysis of the Azzam get.