US kills al Qaeda's biggest bomber in Iraq

AFP:

US forces have killed an Al-Qaeda militant who planned some of the biggest bombings in Baghdad and who killed a group of Russian diplomats in 2006, the military said on Saturday.

Mahir Ahmad Mahmud al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami, was killed along with an unnamed woman in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah on Friday, a statement said.

The military said Abu Rami's group was responsible for suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad on Thursday.

In one incident, a man blew himself at the gate of Al-Rasool mosque in the Jadida neighbourhood and killed 12 people.

And a suicide car bomb on the same day in the Zafaraniyah neighbourhood killed eight people, including three Iraqi soldiers.

Abu Rami was reportedly also responsible for multiple car bombings and mortar attacks in Sadr City in 2006 and 2007, including the car bombings on November 23, 2006 that killed more than 200 people.

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"In a video recording from June 2006, Abu Rami is seen shooting one of four Russian diplomats," the statement said.

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The military said intelligence reports led US forces to a building in Adhamiyah where Abu Rami was holed up on Friday.

The troops came under attack from inside the building and fired back, killing Abu Rami and the woman.

The troops later found explosives inside the building and detonated them.

Abu Rami had ties to senior leaders of Al-Qaeda in Baghdad and was also responsible for attacks in Baghdad, Salaheddin and Diyala provinces, the statement said.

Originally a member of Ansar al-Islam, Abu Rami joined Al-Qaeda in 2004 and became the group's head of Baghdad's Rusafa district in 2007.

The military said Abu Rami specialised in car bombings and suicide bombings and personally selected the targets.

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"His removal from the AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) network will send shockwaves through Baghdad's terrorist bombing networks," he said in the statement.

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That is not to mention the Democrats like Obama who have been saying that al Qaeda is not in Iraq.

This will be a big loss for al Qaeda and it demonstrates how they have lost the war in Iraq. Since the surge, there has been a surge in actionable intelligence that has made it difficult for al Qaeda to find a place to hide. It is the loss of sanctuaries that has led to their demise and that came from putting people in the neighborhoods and protecting the people from retribution by al Qaeda.

We are not at this point in Afghanistan because we still have an inadequate force to space ratio and have not developed a relationship with the local tribes to get their help with intelligence.