Al Qaeda "emir" of Samarra killed

Washington Post:

U.S. forces killed a local leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and captured another in raids north of Baghdad on Thursday and Friday, dealing a blow to the insurgent organization's leadership in the violent city of Samarra, Iraqi police and U.S. military authorities said.

U.S. troops tracked Hamadi al-Takhi al-Nissani, al-Qaeda's "emir" in Samarra, to a safe house north of the city Friday morning, the U.S. military said in a statement. As the soldiers approached the house, Nissani fled and was killed. Two other armed insurgents in the house were also killed, according to the statement.

Police in Samarra who spoke on condition of anonymity gave a slightly different account, saying that the house was east of the city and that the three men were running to a getaway car when fire from an American helicopter killed them.

On Thursday night, U.S. troops also arrested Abdul Qadir Makhool, another al-Qaeda leader in Samarra, and released a police officer who had been kidnapped by the group, Maj. Jamal Samarraie, an officer at the provincial Joint Command Center, said in an interview.

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The blow to the al-Qaeda leadership in Samarra coincided with a surge in violence in the city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. An Iraqi general there said 58 people, most of them insurgents, had been killed over two days of fighting in the restive city, the Associated Press reported.

The violence began Thursday afternoon when a large force of insurgents launched simultaneous attacks on five police checkpoints and a police station, the U.S. military said in a statement. Elsewhere in the city, a force of more than 100 insurgents attacked an army headquarters with a barrage of mortar fire, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifle fire. Iraqi troops fought off all the attacks, the U.S. military said, killing 21 insurgents and capturing 43.

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Enemy attacks seem to be as ineffective as ever. They continue to have a serious problem whenver they attempt to mass. The Baqubah attacks seem to reflect this pattern that has existed from the begining of the insurgency. The main difference is that it is Iraqi troops that are inflicted the casualties on ehe enemy instead of US forces. The effectiveness of the Iraqi troops in this fight is bad news for the enemy.