US-led forces killed an Al-Qaeda militant allegedly responsible for a string of car bombings in Iraq, including an attack that killed 202 people in Baghdad, the US military said on Wednesday.Abu Yaqub al-Masri was shot dead on August 31 near the town of Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, a statement said. "Al-Masri, who is also known as Zakkariya or Doctor, was a military advisor to Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders in Baghdad and the surrounding belts," the statement said. "He provided guidance and direction for attack planning, coordination and execution."
An Al-Qaeda leader captured earlier this year described Masri as "director of the group's 'car bomb division,'" it added.
Masri was one of the primary architects of a series of simultaneous car bombings in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City last November that killed 202 people, the statement said. It said that during on operation west of Tarmiyah on August 31, a US-led assault force had followed a vehicle containing "two suspected terrorists" and attempted to get the driver to stop.
"When the driver resisted capture, the assault force fired on the vehicle. Both the driver and the passenger were killed in the operation. Coalition forces later identified one of the men as Abu Yaqub al-Masri."
Masri had previously fought against coalition forces in Afghanistan and is linked to several senior leaders of Al-Qaeda, the statement said. He was also allied to Osama bin Laden's Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and close to Iraq's Al-Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike in June 2006.
The US military spokesman in Iraq, Major General Kevin Bergner, said US and Iraqi forces were destroying Al-Qaeda's "safe havens" and having success in targetting its leaders. This had helped see violence dip in Iraq to the lowest level in 18 months, he said. "While Iraq remains a violent place beset by many problems, it is a less violent place than it was last winter," Bergner told a press conference in Baghdad. "Since the surge operations began 13 weeks ago, the overall security incidents throughout Iraq have followed a downward trend," he said, referring to a US troop "surge" which began in mid-February. "It is now the lowest level of incidents since March 2006," Bergner said.
"The total number of attacks on a weekly basis against Iraqi citizens, Iraqi security forces and coalition forces has declined for the eighth straight week. This is the longest sustained downward trend since January 2004."
Part of the reason, he said, was that US and Iraqi forces were destroying Al-Qaeda networks and that Iraqi citizens were cooperating more and more with police and security force members in the fight against the insurgency. "We are also continuing to see effective operations by Iraqi security forces. They are increasingly in the front line of defence and are suffering losses three times that of coalition forces," Bergner said.