Al-Qaeda admits commanders’ deaths

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has confirmed the deaths of two senior commanders, a week after US and Iraqi authorities announced they had been killed, according to an intelligence-monitoring agency.

Abu Ayub al-Masri, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an al-Qaeda affiliate, were reportedly killed in a joint raid by US and Iraqi soldiers on April 18.
SITE, the intelligence-monitoring service, said on Saturday the Islamic State of Iraq, had confirmed the deaths of the two men in a statement on Islamist internet forums.
“The ISI shariah minister, Abu al-Walid Abd al-Wahhab al-Mashadani, informed that both leaders were attending a meeting when enemy forces engaged with them in battle and launched an air strike on their location,” SITE said.
Al-Mashadani was quoted as saying: “If Allah fated that the two sheikhs be killed at this particular time, know that they left a unique generation behind, one that was raised before their eyes.”
Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, announced last week the two deaths, saying that a major threat to the country’s security had been removed.
Al-Masri and al-Baghdadi were found dead in a basement hole after their safe house was hit by a missile and stormed by Iraqi and US troops.

Line of leaders?

Al-Maliki said that al-Baghdadi and al-Masri were killed in a raid on a safehouse as part of a major operation in which evidence was found that had foiled future attacks.
Forensic tests had confirmed their identities.
General Ray Odierno, the US forces commander in Iraq, said in a statement that the killings were “potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency”.
It is believed that the killings of al-Baghdadi and al-Masri sparked a series of apparent reprisal bombings, including one that killed at least 56 people in Shia Muslim areas of Baghdad on Friday.
Al-Qaeda’s statement condemned the operation that killed the two commanders, and claimed that it came after several ISI successful attacks.
“The ‘Crusaders’ and Shia will exploit the incident to improve the image of Iraqi security services and give the enemy alliance an ‘illusory’ victory after the mass-casualty incidents carried out by the ISI in Baghdad,” the web statement said, in an apparent reference to Friday’s bomb attacks.

Source: Agencies