Al Qaeda leader in Iraq killed

AP/NY Times:

A U.S. military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted Saudi Arabian al-Qaida in Iraq leader who was believed responsible for the bombing deaths of five American soldiers, a spokesman said Monday.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said Jar Allah, also known as Abu Yasir al-Saudi, and another Saudi known only as Hamdan, were both killed Wednesday in Mosul. Al-Saudi headed up the al-Qaida network in southeast Mosul, an insurgent hotbed where U.S forces wage daily battles against the group.

According to the military, al-Saudi conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces, including a Jan. 28 bombing that killed the five U.S. soldiers.

In that attack, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque. The soldiers died in the explosion -- the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad.

Intelligence gathered in the area led the U.S. military to al-Saudi, who was in a car with Hamdan. A precision helicopter strike killed both and destroyed their vehicle. U.S. forces then confirmed the men's identities.

Al-Saudi is said to have been a close associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri and to have arrived in Mosul with a group of foreign fighters in August 2007 after spending time fighting in Afghanistan.

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All of this is news to Obama who still insists al Qaeda is not in Iraq and if it is it is made up of Iraqis reacting to the regime change in Iraq even though they opposed Saddam, etc. It may also be a surprise to the editorial board of the NY Times who prefers to call the group al Qaeda in Mesopotamia so no one will get the impression that they are in Iraq.

Other reports have indicated that Jar Allah facilitated the movement of foreign fighters into Iraq. That is another inconvenient fact for the Times and may be why it was left out of this report.