Al-Qaida leader responsible for Fort Carson deaths is killed

BAGHDAD - A U.S. military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted al-Qaida in Iraq leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for the bombing deaths of five soldiers from Fort Carson, a spokesman said Sunday.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said Jar Allah, also known as Abu Yasir al-Saudi, and another Saudi known only as Hamdan, were both killed Wednesday in Mosul.

According to the military, al-Saudi conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces, including the Jan. 28 bomb attack in Mosul that killed the five U.S. soldiers from Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. In that attack, insurgents blasted an Army patrol with a roadside bomb and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque. The soldiers died in the explosion, the deadliest attack on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad.

Intelligence gathered in the Mosul area led the U.S. military to al-Saudi, who was in a car with Hamdan. A precision helicopter strike killed both and destroyed their vehicle. U.S. forces then confirmed the men’s identities.

Smith said their deaths brought to 142 the number of al-Qaida insurgents killed or captured in Mosul since the end of January.

Al-Saudi was the man who headed up the al-Qaida network in southeast Mosul, an insurgent hotbed where U.S. forces wage daily battles against the group. Fort Carson’s 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment deployed in December with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team and was sent to Mosul. The brigade’s other five battalions are serving in and around Baghdad.

“Mosul is the center of al-Qaida’s terrorist activities today. Mosul is a critical crossroads for al-Qaida in Iraq. Baghdad has always been al-Qaida’s operational center of gravity, but Mosul remains their strategic center of gravity as it provides access to the flow of foreign fighters,” Smith said.

Mosul is at the locus of roads that connect Iraq with Syria to the west, Turkey to the north and Iran to the east. Many fighters smuggled in from Syria make their way through Mosul, where they can easily blend in with the city’s ethnically and religiously diverse population.

“It is their strategic center of gravity. Onehalf to two-thirds of attacks in Iraq today are in and around Mosul,” Smith said.

According to the military, al-Saudi planned and conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces, including a reported attempt with a 5,000-pound vehicle bomb that would have killed hundreds of people if it had exploded.

Al-Saudi was a close associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri and arrived in Mosul with a group of foreign fighters in August after spending time fighting in Afghanistan. “He was quickly moved up to run all of the terror network’s operations in southeast Mosul, becoming the most visible and active al-Qaida operative in the area,” Smith said.

A successful program to recruit and fund Sunni tribesmen has also slashed al-Qaida’s influence in Baghdad and western Anbar province, pushing the group into Diyala province and up toward Mosul — fighting as they retreat north.

In one incident Sunday, 13 gunmen were killed and eight were injured in clashes with American and Iraqi forces in Tal Afar — on the road from Syria to Mosul.

Tal Afar Mayor Maj. Gen. Najim Abdullah said that two police officers were also killed and four were injured.

In two other separate attacks in Diyala, police reported that five people were killed when a roadside bomb hit a bus, while another assault killed a patrolling police officer.