By Xinhua
Baghdad : U.S. and Iraqi special forcese liminated on Monday a commander of an extremist network accused of criminal activities against Iraqi forces and civilians in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Iraqi Special Operations Forces, led by U.S. Special Forces advisers, conducted an operation to detain a reported extremist commander in the Amel neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, a military statement said.
During the operation, the troops raided a building where the wanted leader took shelter and shot him dead after he attempted to grab a weapon, it added.
Based on credible intelligence, the statement said, the targeted leader and his network are implicated in attacks, murder, kidnappings and criminal activity against Iraqi security forces and civilians, including the sectarian murder of several hundred Iraqi civilians in the past year.
The statement did not say whether the targeted leader was a Shiite or a Sunni one, but the Amel neighborhood is a stronghold for Mahdi Army militia, loyal to the firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.