KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) — Abu Qaswarah, described as Al-Qaeda's number two in Iraq who was killed earlier this month by the US military, held Swedish citizenship, the Iraqi defence ministry said on Thursday.
"Abu Qaswarah is a Swede of Moroccan origin," ministry spokesman General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.
The US military on Wednesday revealed that Abu Qaswarah had been killed on October 5 during a raid on a building in the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul where suspected Al-Qaeda militants were holed up.
Also on Wednesday, Sweden's security police, Saepo, said a Swedish citizen of Moroccan descent had been killed by US forces in northern Iraq at the beginning of October.
The Swedish news agency TT later said the man was Abu Qaswarah.
A statement on Wednesday by the US military said "Abu Qaswarah, also known as Abu Sara, was the Al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader of northern Iraq."
It said Abu Qaswarah was a native of Morocco with ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq's founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike in Iraq in June 2006.
Abu Qaswara was linked to the Brandbergen mosque in Stockholm, which in the past has been connected to extremist Islamic networks, the US said.
The raid also led to the death of four other insurgents as well as three women and three children, the military said in an earlier report.
According to the defence ministry, the Americans took away the body of Abu Qaswara for DNA analysis before concluding that he was the Al-Qaeda chief on their wanted list.
Information on the group was initially collected through the "infiltration" of Al-Qaeda as well as relatives "close to terrorists," Askari said.
"This is a defeat for Al-Qaeda and proof that we have infiltrated them and we them from city to city, and we will continue this until their total destruction," he added.
The US military also reported Thursday that it had arrested four other members of Al-Qaeda in Mosul, widely seen as Al-Qaeda's last urban bastion in Iraq.
One wanted man, associated with a terrorist killed on October 5, and a suspect were arrested on Wednesday by coalition forces. The other detainee allegedly had relations with senior Al-Qaeda operatives, it said.
Two more suspected terrorists were detained by coalition forces on Thursday during an operation targeting the regional Qaeda leadership in Mosul.
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