By NNN-KUNA
Washington : A US Commander in Iraq said on Friday that the Coalition Forces killed last Tuesday a senior al-Qaeda leader who was set to be the new leader of the organisation in Iraq, describing this development as a key success for counter-terrorism effort in Iraq.
“He was a primary facilitator for the movement of foreign terrorists into the country. His death is a key loss to the al Qaeda foreign leadership”, said the Chief of Staff of Multinational Corps in Iraq Brigadier General Joseph Anderson in a Pentagon briefing via videoconference from Iraq, providing an update about Abu Usama al-Tunisi, a Tunisian national, killed last Tuesday near Musayyib southwest of Baghdad.
Anderson noted that al-Tunisi was “the emir of foreign terrorists in Iraq” and “a close associate and part of the inner circle of close advisers to Abu Ayyub al-Masri”, the main leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was also killed on August 31 near Tarmiya, north of Baghdad.
The US Commander pointed out that al-Tunisi was active in Yusufiya, southwest of Baghdad since November 2004, was promoted to Emir status in the summer of 2006, and his cell was responsible for kidnapping a US soldier in June 2006.
“This was a dangerous terrorist who is no longer part of al Qaeda in Iraq. His death deals a significant blow to their operation”, said Anderson noting that al-Tunisi was likely to be the successor of al-Masri.
Before his death, al-Tunisi was coordinating al-Qaeda operations in the Radwaniyah area southwest of Baghdad “to reinforce al-Qaeda in Iraq’s capability to project power and operations into Baghdad”.
Anderson said that the “inner circle of leadership” around al-Masri consists mainly of foreigners, mentioning that even the deputy of al-Tunisi is another Tunisian national called Abu Jihad.
US forces in Iraq recently captured or killed as well two top Iraqi leaders in al-Qaeda, Abu Shayeb and Abdallah Latif al-Jubouri.
“He oversaw the movement of foreign terrorists into Iraq and their coupling with terrorist cells to conduct operations”, said Anderson about al-Tunisi.
Anderson added that US forces in Iraq received information on Sept 25 that a meeting was taking place between al-Tunisi and other members of al Qaeda in Iraq in a place near Musayyib, as a result, “United States Air Force F-16 aircraft attacked the target”, he said, killing three, al-Tunisi, the new emir of South Karkh in Baghdad and al-Qaeda facilitator in Iraq Sheikh Hussein, and capturing two others present in the meeting.
Anderson said that US forces found a letter handwritten by al-Tunisi saying “I am surrounded and desperate”, the US commander added that “he was not getting the materials, the supplies, the guidance, information he needed”.
“Over 80 percent of suicide bombings are done by foreign terrorists. Until recently, approximately 60 to 80 foreign terrorists have entered Iraq each month”, added Anderson noting that the number of foreign terrorists entering Iraq per month is “has been cut in about half” due to better effectiveness in security border.
“The border effort is countrywide, so the same amount of effort’s being applied down on the border with Saudi Arabia just like it is as everywhere in Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Iran”, concluded Anderson pointing out that the measures even include ports and airports.