US Military says Al-Qaida in Iraq Leader Not Killed in Raid
05 October 2006
The U.S. military says it is "highly unlikely" that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was among several militants killed in a recent raid in Al Anbar province.
A U.S. military spokesman said he believes militant leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajer (also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri) is alive - despite reports he was killed in the raid Wednesday in the town of Haditha, west of Baghdad.
However, U.S. and Iraqi officials say they are conducting DNA tests on one of the militants killed to be completely sure.
In another development, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a previously unannounced visit Thursday to Iraq. She has been on a tour of the Middle East. The visit comes at a time of escalating violence in Iraq. More than 20 American troops have been killed there in the last four days.
Wednesday, Iraqi authorities suspended one of Baghdad's police units on suspicion of complicity with sectarian death squads. The entire police brigade, the Eighth National Police Brigade, was ordered back into barracks for re-training.
A U.S. military spokesman, Major General William Caldwell, says there is clear evidence that the unit allowed death squad elements to move freely, when it should have been impeding their movements.
The spokesman also said the number of bombings in Baghdad, both detonated and defused, has hit "an all-time high" in the past weeks.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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