US forces kill al-Qaeda cell leader, his family in Mosul (1st Lead)

Nov 13, 2007, 10:30 GMT

Baghdad - US forces killed a wanted al-Qaeda terrorist network cell leader, his wife and one-year old infant in a raid in Mosul, independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported Tuesday, citing a Nineveh police official said.

'The family supporter, who moved to the area a month ago, was an emir (leader) of a group affiliated to al-Qaeda and was on the US army's list of wanted persons,' director of the Ninewa security operations room Abdul-Kareem al-Jaburi told VOI.

The bodies, he added, showed burning signs and were removed to the morgue in the city.

The US military did not comment on the incident.

Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, is about 400 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad.

In a related development, a key al-Qaeda figure was killed in a US strike on the city of Samarra in Iraq's northern Salahaddin province, a security source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Tuesday.

'Talal al-Bazi, who is a former Iraqi police officer holding the post of minister in the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and known to security bodies as Abu-Tiba, was killed Monday in a US helicopter strike,' a source in the Tikrit police said.

The car in which al-Bazi was riding from the Banat al-Hasan to Mamlaha districts in Samarra was struck, according to the source.

Most Al-Qaeda loyalists fled Banat al-Hasan to areas in east Samarra following a surge in strikes launched by both the Sunni Islamic Army of Iraq and Iraqi forces, the source explained.

The Muatasim region, which together with Ishaki constituted one of the key bases for al-Qaeda, was now under the control of Iraqi troops, the source said.

The Islamic Army of Iraq, which was once part of the Sunni insurgency against the US-led coalition army, is one of several factions now combating al-Qaeda.

Seven members of al-Qaeda have also been killed by the Islamic Army of Iraq, the source said.

Among the dead are key members, such as Hosam Bidiwi, an administrative leader, and Bakr Ahmad Rahil, who was in charge of prisons, according to the source.

The source said security forces were close to declaring the end of al-Qaeda in the province of Salahaddin as a result of strikes by US and Iraqi troops and the Islamic Army of Iraq.

Al-Qaeda fighters have been operating from bases in south-east and south-west Samarra, 120 kilometres north of Baghdad.