U.S.: Al-Zarqawi No. 2 killed in Baghdad

updated 8:19 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi and U.S. forces claimed a major blow against one of the country’s deadliest insurgent groups Tuesday, saying they killed the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who masterminded a brutal escalation in suicide bombings that claimed nearly 700 lives in Baghdad since April.

The attacks also wounded 1,500 in the capital, according to an Associated Press tally.

Despite the reported success, a suicide attacker blew himself up in a police recruitment center in the town of Baqouba, north of the capital, killing nine people. In Baghdad, gunmen killed four policemen. At least 66 people, including four U.S. forces, have been killed in attacks since Sunday.

But the week’s death toll could have been far higher: U.S. Marines intercepted a suicide bomber who had succeeded in driving his explosives-packed vehicle into the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone and reached within a mile of the U.S. Embassy.

The discovery raised concerns about security in the zone, where U.S. and Iraqi government buildings and residences are located. A U.S. military spokesman said the driver of the car was arrested and the military later detonated the vehicle.

The driver was caught at a checkpoint on a road within the zone leading to the embassy, close to the home of Iraqi Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

In southern Iraq, police found the badly decomposed bodies of 22 Iraqi men who had been shot to death and dumped in a field, many of them bound and blindfolded, said Police Lt. Othman al-Lami of the Wasit provincial police. He said the victims appeared to have been killed more than a month ago but their identities were not known. The district — northeast of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad — is mostly Shiite.

Abu Azzam killed in gunbattle
The al-Qaida in Iraq No. 2, Abdullah Abu Azzam, was killed in a gunbattle that broke out when he opened fire on troops raiding his hide out in a high-rise apartment building in southeast Baghdad before dawn Sunday, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told AP.

Al-Qaida in Iraq issued an Internet statement denying Abu Azzam was the group’s deputy leader, calling him “one of al-Qaida’s many soldiers” and “the leader of one its battalions operating in Baghdad.” It confirmed the raid but said it was not certain yet whether he was killed.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said Abu Azzam led al-Qaida’s operations in Baghdad, personally planning a stepped-up wave of suicide bombings that hit the capital since April, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. They said he also controlled financing for foreign fighters who entered Iraq to join the insurgency.

If true, that would make him responsible for some of the more brutal attacks seen in Baghdad. According to an AP tally, 698 people have been killed and 1,579 have been wounded since April 1 in suicide attacks in the capital.

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