 Iraqi Air Force Lt. Gen. Kamal, commander, Iraqi Air Force, discusses current operations at a joint press conference held Sunday with Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, deputy spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, and Brig. Gen. Bob Allardice, commander, Coalition Air Force Transition Team, at the Combined Press Information Center. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Carl N. Hudson, Combined Press Information Center. “Yesterday, the government of Iraq announced that the Coalition force killed a senior al Qaeda terrorist, Haitham Sabah al Badri,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq. “He was killed east of Samara on August second.” In addition to both the February 2006 and June 2007 bombings of the Golden Mosque, Al Badri is believed to have been involved in an Aug. 28 attack on a Samara checkpoint that killed 29, as well as the June 23, 2006, bombing of the Kirkuk courthouse. His body was positively identified by family members after the Coalition air strike. During the operation, Coalition force members raided a series of four buildings associated with al Badri, Multi-National Force-Iraq officials reported. About four armed men moved from the targeted buildings into outdoor tactical fighting positions in what ground forces viewed as a set-up to ambush approaching Coalition force members. Responding to the hostile threat, they called in close-air support. The strike killed al Badri and three other terrorists, one of them a foreign fighter. Ground forces also found weapons on site and detained seven other suspected terrorists. Fox called eliminating al Badri, considered al-Qaeda’s emir of greater Samara, another step in breaking the cycle of violence instigated by the attack on Samarra’s holy shine. While this is one more broken link in al-Qaeda’s chain, Fox said the Coalition is not relaxing. “We’ve always felt that, even in a weakened state, al-Qaeda is very dangerous,” he said. “Our approach to how we handle that is to take down the car-bomb networks, is to go after these different nodes and cells.” Fox said the Iranian-backed “secret cell” poses another force for Coalition and Iraq forces to turn their attention. “(They) are apparently rogue or splinter, he said. “We’re going after those kinds of rogue elements just like we’re going after al-Qaeda.” (Story by Samantha L. Quigley, American Forces Press Service) In other developments throughout Iraq: • Iraqi Security Forces conducted an early-morning raid Friday detaining two people believed to be responsible for improvised explosive device attacks in the Samarra area. • Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers uncovered five weapons caches as clearing operations in Rashid District continued Friday and Saturday. |
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