A massive US air blitz on Al Qaeda targets south of Baghdad killed a local leader of the jihadi network and at least 20 other militants, the head of an anti-Qaeda front said. "Our information confirmed that Walid Khudair, also known as al-Jahash, leader of Al Qaeda in the southern belts of Baghdad was killed," said Mustaf al-Jabouri, leader of the anti-Qaeda "Awakening" group in the targeted village of Arab Jabour. "Twenty other terrorists were also killed," Sheikh Jabouri, a tribal leader said.
The US military could not confirm that militants were killed in the air bombardments, which saw 21,500 kilograms of explosives dropped on 47 targets in a 10-minute blitz on the Sunni area dominated by date palms and citrus groves. "We have had no reports of any civilians killed," a US military commander Colonel Terry Ferrell told a Baghdad press conference via a video link. Asked if any Al Qaeda fighters were killed, he said, "I don't have the assessment at this time."He said the air strike, which involved two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighter-bombers and which was one of the largest since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, had targeted roadside bombs and arms caches rather than people. "We believe we were able to destroy several major improvised explosive devices (roadside bombs)," said Colonel Ferrell. "We believe we were also able to identify and destroy several weapons caches."
Another commander, Colonel Peter Donnelly, told the news conference that 51 targets had initially been identified in the Arab Jabour area but fears that civilians could be killed had forced them to abort attacks on four of them. "We hit 47 of the planned targets. The remaining targets were not hit due to collateral damage (civilian casualty) concerns. An unmanned aerial vehicle detected civilians and a vehicle in the area, so those targets were not hit."
Mr Jabouri said that according to his information, no civilians were killed. He said the Arab Jabour area had become a stronghold of Al Qaeda, now identified by the US military as the main threat to stability in Iraq. "They used it as a base for storing weapons to carry out attacks against civilians in Baghdad," said the head of the Awakening, one of some 300 anti-Qaeda groups of Iraqis formed by the US military across Iraq. "Al Qaeda has displaced all the families who used to live in this area and made a fortified zone in the palm groves," said Mr Jabouri. "We provided the coalition forces all the information about their presence and their hideouts in order to clear them out of the area."
In recent weeks, Awakening members have become targets for attack, with three prominent leaders killed in Baghdad alone. Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has termed those participating in the programs as "traitors" while a Qaeda-linked group early December warned they would be specially targeted by insurgents.
Colonel Ferrell said the air strikes were part of a nationwide operation against Al Qaeda codenamed Phantom Phoenix, launched by US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday mainly in four provinces north of Baghdad - Diyala, Salaheddin, Tamim and Nineveh. Other commanders have reported that at least 20 militants have been killed and dozens detained, mainly in Diyala, since the start of the operation. Those rounded up, they said, included militants suspected of involvement in facilitating car and roadside bombings, suicide attacks, kidnappings, executions and "foreign terrorist facilitation."
The US military has reported another two Al Qaeda fighters were killed and 11 suspected militants were also killed in operations in the central and northern cities of Samarra, Tikrit and Mosul.