U.S., Iraqi officials claim major victory against al-Qaida in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Iraqi and U.S. security forces said Monday that they’d killed the two top leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq
in what the American military said could be the most significant blow
to the militant Sunni Muslim organization since it was formed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that the men known as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri were killed Sunday in a raid in northern Iraq.
He displayed photographs for state television of the bodies of
al-Baghdadi and al-Masri, both noms de guerre for leaders of the group.

“I give the happy tidings of the strike, which targeted and killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who were hiding in a hole in Tharthar area,” al-Maliki said at a news conference in Baghdad.

Vice President Joe Biden on Monday called the killings of the two “potentially devastating blows” to al-Qaida in Iraq.
“But equally important, in my view,” he added, “is this action
demonstrates the improved security, strength and capacity of Iraqi
security forces. The Iraqis led this operation, and it was based on
intelligence the Iraqi security forces themselves developed following
their capture of a senior AQI leader last month.”

Iraqi officials mistakenly had announced
al-Baghdadi’s death several times over the past two years, but this
time a U.S. military spokesman said that DNA testing had proved that
both men were dead.

“The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaida in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency,” said Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

He said the Iraqi government’s intelligence and
security forces, along with U.S. intelligence and special operations
forces, had continued to wear down al-Qaida in Iraq over the past several months.

However, a recent study by a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, Jenna Jordan,
published this month in the journal Security Studies, concluded that
killing the leaders of terrorist groups, particularly religious ones,
“is not an effective counterterrorism strategy.”

In fact, Jordan found: “Groups that have not had
their leaders targeted have a higher rate of decline than groups whose
leaders have been removed. Decapitation is actually counterproductive,
particularly for larger, older, religious or separatist organizations.”

Four years ago, then-President George W. Bush said the killing of al-Masri’s predecessor, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had dealt a “severe blow” to al-Qaida in Iraq, but the U.S. military said Monday that al-Masri had been responsible for high-profile bombings and attacks against Iraqis.

U.S. and Iraqi operations have disrupted the group’s
lines of command and control, and the temporary surge of additional
American troops to Iraq
— coupled with financial and other support for Sunnis who oppose the
extremists — has weakened the militants, but they’ve shown that they’re
still capable of carrying out complex, high-profile operations such as
a series of bombings against embassies this month.

The U.S. military said that Iraqi and American
security forces had killed al-Masri and al-Baghdadi in raids Sunday
just southwest of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. A military statement said that a series of operations over
the past week had led them to a safe house where the men were hiding.
U.S. forces appear to have called in a rocket attack on the house after
gunmen inside opened fire.

American forces said that al-Baghdadi’s son and an assistant to al-Masri also were killed.

A U.S. soldier was killed in the operation and three
others were wounded when their helicopter crashed during the overnight
raid. The American military previously had said the aircraft wasn’t
downed by enemy fire, and it was investigating the cause of the crash.

Also Monday, a three-judge Iraqi judicial committee ordered a recount in Baghdad of votes cast in parliamentary elections March 7. Al-Maliki, who lost the election to former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi by two seats, had demanded a recount.

“To consolidate these security gains and to honor
the sacrifice that so many have made,” Biden said, “it’s now incumbent
upon Iraqi political leaders to take the next and important necessary
step to form an inclusive and representative government that meets the
needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people.

“We remain committed to end our combat mission in Iraq … by the end of August 2010
and, in accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that was
signed a couple of years ago, to remove all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.”

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(c) 2010, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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