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-Qaeda 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.
Abdullah Abu Azzam, the No. 2 in Iraq to al-Qaeda’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a gun battle that broke out when he opened fire on troops raiding his hideout in a high-rise apartment building in southeast Baghdad before dawn Sunday, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told AP.
“Things that Zarqawi cannot do because of his profile, Azzam was able to do. His impact reached far beyond Baghdad and actually had impact on operations throughout Iraq,” U.S. military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, said over British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Abu Azzam led al-Qaeda 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.
