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Iraq gets rid of al-Qaeda's No. 2

Iraq yesterday claimed a major coup with the killing of al-Qaeda's No. 2 in the country as a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police recruiting center, leaving 10 dead.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Baghdad to inaugurate a training mission, the first direct alliance involvement in Iraq since the 2003 US-led war to oust former president Saddam Hussein which caused a rift amongst the allies.

"We managed to kill the No. 2 of al-Qaeda in Iraq," national security advisor Muwaffaq Rubaie said.

Abu Azzam was shot dead on Monday in a joint US-Iraqi raid on a safe house in Baghdad following a tip-off from a local Iraqi, he said, although US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Michelle Lunato said he was killed on Sunday.

Rubaie described the operation as "a major coup" which would likely hobble insurgent forces loyal to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the country's most wanted man.

Abu Azzam, who was believed to be a Palestinian, infiltrated into Iraq in April, and "we believe he must have killed 1,200 Baghdadis," mostly in car bombings, Rubaie said.

Lunato said Abu Azzam, also known as Abdallah Nahim, but whose real name was Abdallah Muhammed al-Juhaari, was "the second-most wanted al-Qaeda person in Iraq."

He headed al-Qaeda in Baghdad and was operational commander for the organization in the country, she said.

"He was killed in a joint operation of Iraqi and multinational forces on Sunday at 4:50am" in a high-rise building in the city after being located thanks to "multiple intelligence sources and information from a close associate," she said.

"During the operation, which was held with the intent of capturing him, he fired and he was killed by return fire," she said, adding that one other insurgent was wounded in the raid.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is held responsible for some of the more spectacular attacks in Iraq, along with multiple kidnappings and beheadings, and Zarqawi has declared "all-out war" on the country's Shiites.

In the latest attack against security forces, 10 people were killed by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt who blew himself up in a crowd waiting outside a police recruitment center in Baquba, a restive town northeast of the capital, police said.

Many of the victims were newly recruited policemen reporting for their first day at work, police said. Another 26 people were injured in the attack.

A car bomb also exploded in a central Baghdad street as a private convoy passed by. Police said five civilians were hurt.

Gunmen also attacked a bus taking detainees to Abu Ghraib jail in western Baghdad, killing two detainees and wounding eight. Four police guards were also hurt, security officials said.

In the town of Kirkuk an army officer was shot dead by insurgents and a policeman died in a bomb explosion, security officials said.

In Baghdad, Scheffer inaugurated the headquarters of the NATO training mission in the high-security "green zone" which also houses the US and British embassies and government offices.

"What you are doing is of great importance for this country and the development of democratic institutions," he told NATO officers who will man the center.

NATO is also setting up a new military academy in al-Rustimayah on the outskirts of the capital to train Iraqi military officers.
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