AQI Leaders Captured

Source Article HERE.

From 'Centcom': Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, Multi-National Force - Iraq spokesman, in a briefing told reporters that Coalition forces had captured or killed 53 al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) leaders since his most recent news conference. The 10 most significant targets, according to Bergner, were:

• Abd-al-Rahman Ibrahim Jasim Thair, the military emir responsible for al-Qaida's operations in Mosul. Thair is the former emir in Beiji, who moved to Mosul because of the city’s importance to al-Qaida.

• Muhammad Fathi Hammad Husayn, an al-Qaida cell leader in Sharqat. Like Thair, he also moved from Beiji, where he was formerly the emir in charge of assassinations.

• Jasim Najm Khalaf Muhammad, a leader in al-Qaida's network in Khark who was attempting to reconstitute terrorist networks around Baghdad when coalition forces captured him in Tarmiyah.

• Ali Mustashar Ali, a car bomb network operative in Baghdad. He and his associates moved explosives, vehicles and suicide bombers throughout the Iraqi capital.

• Hamid Awayd Muhammad, a car-bomb and truck-bomb attack operative in Baghdad. Once the al-Qaida emir responsible for Anbar province, he handled the logistics for vehicle-bomb attacks north of Baghdad at the time of his capture.

• Ahmad Husayn Ghanim Ali, the security emir for eastern Mosul.

• Abu Mansur, al-Qaida's deputy emir for Mosul, who acted as a judge in the terror network's illegal courts. The role of Mansur, who died on March 8th, was to "cloak their corrupt ideology with religious sanction."

• Tumah Khalaf Mutar Hassan, the leader of al-Qaida's cell in Samarra, who worked closely with the area's emir. Coalition forces captured him in Samarra in early March.

• Muqdad Ibrahim Abbas Husayn, al-Qaida's military emir for Jalam, located east of Baghdad. He coordinated terror operations with counterparts from Tikrit, Samarra and Mosul, and arranged al-Qaida leadership meetings in the Tigris River valley. Husayn also oversaw kidnappings for ransom that terrorists relied on for operational funding.

• Mahmud Abd-al-Hamid Isa Aaywi, al-Qaida's military emir for southern Karkh. His operations focused on trying to use car and truck bombs in Rashid, Karrada and Mansour.

"These terrorists are just one component of the mosaic of security threats that seek to destabilize Iraq and incite a cycle of violence the Iraqi people broadly reject," Bergner said. He noted that recent violence against Iraqi citizens "highlights the need to keep going forward and the need to keep pursuing these terrorists."