BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military said on Wednesday that 51 Al-Qaeda leaders were killed or captured by multinational forces in Iraq during December, as efforts to close down the Islamist extremist group intensified.
One senior Al-Qaeda figure who was found guilty of terrorism in an Iraqi court on Sunday had spoken in detail about the organisation and its foreign leadership, added US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner.
Of those captured in December, "eight were regional, city or functional emirs, nine were cell leaders, six were involved in media and propaganda activities and five that were foreigner terrorist facilitators," Bergner said.
He said the others were involved in bomb-making, or were spiritual advisers, financiers, intelligence gatherers or weapons traffickers.
Among those captured was the leader of Al-Qaeda in the northern city of Baiji and the regional leader in charge from west Baghdad to Fallujah, Bergner said, adding that several had direct contact with Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
The Al-Qaeda member who spoke about the group's power structure was captured in July and "specifically stated that the Islamic State of Iraq is a front organisation for Al-Qaeda in Iraq that serves to mask the foreign domination of its leadership," Bergner told a news conference.
The man also "revealed that 'Omar al-Baghdadi' is a fictional character or figurehead created by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian, to give Al-Qaeda in Iraq's foreign leadership more of an Iraqi face," said Bergner.
The existence of Baghdadi is disputed, with audio messages purportedly recorded by him speaking as leader of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq group.
"Iraqis have increasingly rejected Al-Qaeda in Iraq and their indiscriminate violence, the Taliban-like ideology and the barbaric torture and intimidation," said Bergner.
On Saturday Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden warned Sunni Muslims in Iraq not to take up arms against his militant network, saying those who did were "traitors."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
